Hezbollah resumes attacks on Israel, 15 killed in two strikes on southern Lebanon

BEIRUT — Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a rocket attack carried out at 2:30 a.m. on the Israeli village of Manara, close to the Blue Line, across from the eastern sector of southern Lebanon. This attack — the first claimed by Hezbollah since the previous night — is described as a "response to the enemy’s violation of the cease-fire agreement" following Wednesday’s massive Israeli strikes.

"This response will continue until the Israeli-American aggression against our country and our people ceases," the group warned, as strikes continue to target southern Lebanon and several other regions of the country, killing about 15 people, including two bombings on Zrarieh, in the Saida region, and Abbasieh, in the Sour region.

Hezbollah had suspended attacks on northern Israel following the announcement of a cease-fire between Iran and the United States, even though Tel Aviv did not consider Lebanon as part of the agreement. However, the Lebanese front was explicitely mentioned by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, a mediator of the truce.

After this first statement about the attack on Manara, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for two more strikes on Israeli positions in Taybeh, in the eastern sector of southern Lebanon.

National day of mourning in Lebanon

As Lebanon observes a national day of mourning for the previous day’s Israeli attacks, the Israeli army has continued its large-scale strikes in the south. One of them wiped out an entire family this morning in Abbasieh in the Sour district, killing seven and injuring four, according to the municipality president Habib Ajami, who said rescue teams continue to clear the rubble.

In Zrarieh (Saida), a village north of the Litani, strikes targeted several homes in the village center, killing at least nine, according to a still preliminary toll from rescuers on site, contacted by our correspondent. One resident told L'Orient-Le Jour that several successive strikes hit six homes. "The ground shook" from the blasts, while debris flew everywhere and thick black smoke covered the region, the man said. The village’s mukhtar, Zahra Mroueh, told our publication that most of the victims are women, including people with special needs.

Additionally, the Lebanese Army reopened the road at the Qasmieh coastal bridge in southern Lebanon after clearing debris from yesterday’s strikes, which allowed the opening of a narrow passage currently used only by cars leaving Sour, our correspondent reported. This bridge over the Litani, on the coastal highway, was the last still linking the Sour region to the rest of Lebanon. A significant movement of population displacement from the Sour region is now passing through the bridge toward safer areas.