Lebanese official media said Israel’s military began striking the country’s south on Sunday after issuing an evacuation warning for seven locations, despite a ceasefire with Hezbollah.
“Israeli warplanes launched a strike” in Kfar Tibnit — one of the locations included in the warning — the state-run National News Agency said, adding that there were reports of casualties.
Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israel reserves the right to act against “planned, imminent or ongoing attacks.” Israel’s military has carried out repeated strikes in Lebanon since the truce came into force on April 17, and its troops are operating inside an Israeli-announced “yellow line” near the border where Lebanese residents have been warned not to return.
The Israeli military ordered the evacuation of seven villages in southern Lebanon on Sunday, saying it would respond to what it said were Hezbollah’s violations of a recently-renewed ceasefire agreement between the countries.
“In light of the terrorist organization Hezbollah’s violation of the ceasefire agreement, the IDF is compelled to take decisive action against it,” the military’s Arabic-language spokesman Colonel Avichay Adraee said on X, naming seven villages south of the Litani River.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said Hezbollah’s actions in Lebanon are “dismantling” the ceasefire agreed between Israel and Lebanon.
“It must be understood that Hezbollah’s violations are, in practice, dismantling the ceasefire,” Netanyahu said during a weekly cabinet meeting.
