After deadly strikes in South Lebanon, Israel seeks ‘more serious’ talks with Lebanon | LIVE

Netanyahu says Israeli strikes targeted Hezbollah headquarters in response to attack that wounded three Israeli soldiers

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this afternoon that Hezbollah had violated the cease-fire in Lebanon by attacking Israeli soldiers in the security zone, seriously wounding three troops.

“This morning, Hezbollah violated the cease-fire in Lebanon by attacking our soldiers in the security zone that protects Israeli communities just across the border. Hezbollah’s attack seriously wounded three of our soldiers,” he said in a statement released by his office.

The statement said the Israeli army retaliated “by striking a Hezbollah headquarters that had ordered the attack.” According to Netanyahu’s office, it was only later that the army “learned that Hezbollah had deliberately placed civilians in this military compound.”

“Hezbollah is prepared to do anything, including using its own civilians as human shields, to falsely accuse Israel of deliberately targeting civilians, which the IDF clearly did not do,” he said.

Israeli army says it killed al-Radwan Force commander in Ansar

The Israeli army announced that it targeted “a key Hezbollah command center” in the Ansar area of Nabatieh overnight from Friday to Saturday. In a message on X, through its Arabic-language spokesperson Ella Waweya, it said it had “eliminated” Ali Samir Hajj Hassan, “a commander in the al-Radwan Force [Hezbollah’s elite force, ed.].”

The statement accused Hajj Hassan of hiding his family members with him inside the military center, using them as “human shields,” and said they were “not targets of the attack,” while the fighter “is a legitimate target under international law.”

Israel seeks “more serious” talks with Lebanon, Netanyahu spokesperson says

Israel wants new, more ambitious negotiations, mediated by the United States, with Lebanon after carrying out strikes, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today, adding that Hezbollah was their common enemy.

Israeli strikes against Hezbollah “should give new momentum to the negotiations and make them much more serious, not have the opposite effect,” Netanyahu spokesperson Doron Spielman told AFP.

Netanyahu says Israeli strikes targeted Hezbollah headquarters in response to attack that wounded three Israeli soldiers

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday afternoon that Hezbollah had violated the cease-fire in Lebanon by attacking Israeli soldiers in the security zone, seriously wounding three troops.

“This morning, Hezbollah violated the cease-fire in Lebanon by attacking our soldiers in the security zone that protects Israeli communities just across the border. Hezbollah’s attack seriously wounded three of our soldiers,” he said in a statement released by his office.

The statement said the Israeli army retaliated “by striking a Hezbollah headquarters that had ordered the attack.” According to Netanyahu’s office, it was only later that the army “learned that Hezbollah had deliberately placed civilians in this military compound.”

“Hezbollah is prepared to do anything, including using its own civilians as human shields, to falsely accuse Israel of deliberately targeting civilians, which the IDF clearly did not do,” he said.

Israeli army continues demolishing homes in South Lebanon

The Israeli army carried out demolitions of homes in the villages of Taybeh and Deir Siriane (Marjayoun district), as well as in Kfar Tebnit (Nabatieh district), our correspondent in South Lebanon reports.

Hezbollah warns of “appropriate response” to Israeli violations, rejects U.S.-backed Lebanon-Israel talks

“The Israeli enemy must understand that its violations and attempts to impose a fait accompli will draw an appropriate response,” Hezbollah warns

In a statement intended to denounce the two deadly Israeli strikes on Ansar and Deir Zahrani overnight and this morning, Hezbollah launched a veritable indictment of the direct Lebanese-Israeli negotiations, under U.S. sponsorship. “The Lebanese authorities must renounce the humiliating direct negotiations and stop offering free gifts to the enemy, disregarding all its crimes and attacks,” the party said in its statement distributed to the press.

For Hezbollah, the Lebanese authorities “must undertake a complete reassessment,” instead of “continuing to run after talks under U.S. influence.” “Relying on American mediation and guarantees is a doomed gamble, because the American is the Israeli’s ally and complicit in its crimes in Lebanon,” the statement continued.

Hezbollah also slammed “the latest arrogant and provocative remarks by the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon” (Michel Issa, ed.), who called for Hezbollah’s disarmament instead of pressuring the Israeli enemy to withdraw from the areas it occupies in the south.

The statement concluded: “All Lebanese must understand the danger of the approach adopted by the Lebanese authorities at the expense of the country’s unity, security and independence. The Israeli enemy must also understand that its violations and attempts to impose a fait accompli cannot continue and will draw the response they deserve.”

Israel says it attacked Hezbollah infrastructure in response to activity against its army

The Israeli army claimed responsibility for the strikes this morning, saying it had attacked infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah in Nabatieh and Ansar in response to activity against Israeli forces in the so-called security zone.

“Overnight [from Friday to Saturday], the IDF attacked infrastructure belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organization in the areas of Nabatieh and Ansar, in southern Lebanon,” Lt. Col. Ella Waweya, the Israeli army’s Arabic-language spokesperson, said on X.

“The strikes were carried out following activity by the Hezbollah terrorist organization against our forces in the Ali Taher Heights area, located inside the security zone where IDF forces operate,” she added.

Israeli strikes kill 11 and wound 19, Health Ministry says

The Health Ministry announced that the Israeli strike on Deir al-Zahrani, in the Nabatieh district, killed four people and wounded 17, including one child and 11 women, according to a final toll.

Together with the strike on Ansar, in the same district, the overall toll from the Israeli attacks stands at 11 killed and 19 wounded, including children and women among the dead and wounded, the ministry said.

Developments in the South: Israeli army movements in Bint Jbeil and Marjayoun, according to our correspondent

• A motorized Israeli army unit was seen heading toward the Khallet Haris-Haddatha area (Bint Jbeil), where a bulldozer was working to install an earthen barrier.

• An Israeli force comprising several vehicles and soldiers positioned itself along the road leading from Mais al-Jabal to Wadi Slouki (Marjayoun).

• Between 2:30 and 3 p.m., Israeli artillery fire hit Taybeh (Marjayoun), followed by the villages of Kfartebnite and Zaoutar al-Sharqiya (Nabatieh), and finally Mansouri (Sour). A powerful explosion had shaken the state-owned lands of Mansouri shortly before.

Berri: The two new Israeli massacres are part of a war of extermination against the South

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said that “the two massacres carried out by Israeli aircraft in the villages of Ansar and Deir Zahrani, which resulted in the death of an entire family, including a woman and children, are part of a war of extermination that the Israeli killing and destruction machine continues to wage” in southern Lebanon.

For the Hezbollah-allied Parliament speaker, “these attacks are proof that Israel, at the political and military levels, attaches no importance to agreements, laws or efforts to end the war and tensions in Lebanon and the region.”

In a statement published by the National News Agency, Berri called for a new approach to the Israeli escalation, “based on national unity, away from all regional, sectarian or partisan considerations.”

He addressed “the sponsors of the negotiations and agreements,” who should “assume their responsibilities to put an end to the war,” in a clear reference to the Americans sponsoring direct Lebanese-Israeli negotiations and the framework agreement signed between the two sides in June.

Berri, who heads the Amal Movement, has opposed the direct negotiations since their launch in April at the initiative of President Joseph Aoun.

New Israeli destruction in Mais al-Jabal

The Israeli army has razed the last remaining houses in Mais al-Jabal (Marjayoun) using bulldozers. It continues to destroy properties west of the town, specifically in the Debbieh area, our correspondent reports.

Aoun: Israeli violations are “a clear message” regarding negotiations

President Joseph Aoun denounced “the Israeli attacks that continue in South Lebanon, particularly in the Nabatieh area and its surroundings.”

In a message posted on X by the Lebanese presidency, he decried “repeated violations of the framework agreement, the work of the military coordination group and international laws intended to protect civilians,” citing “the tragic death of an entire family in the village of Ansar.”

For President Aoun, “these violations are a clear message against the negotiation process and U.S. efforts to implement the agreement.”

Direct Lebanese-Israeli negotiations have been underway since April under U.S. sponsorship, and the framework agreement for the gradual Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon and the deployment of the Lebanese army was signed in June.

Huge blast in the Marjayoun area

The Israeli army carried out a very powerful blast between the villages of Taybeh and Deir Siriane (Marjayoun), shortly after 1 p.m., according to our correspondent. The echoes of the explosion were heard as far as Saida.

Latest toll in Deir Zahrani: Four killed

The Israeli raid on Deir Zahrani around 11:30 a.m. killed four people, according to the latest toll provided by our correspondent. Among the victims were a man and his son who were inside the building initially targeted and who were displaced from the village of Mais al-Jabal (Marjayoun), as well as the property owner who had rented the apartment to the family.

The fourth victim was a motorist who was passing by at the time of the strike and succumbed to a head injury.

According to a local source cited by our correspondent in the region, the wife of one of the victims and her children had left the house shortly before the raid and survived by a miracle. The targeted building was completely destroyed, while a neighboring building was severely damaged.

Two killed in Deir Zahrani in initial toll, mass exodus toward Saida

The head of the Deir Zahrani municipal council, Haidar Toufeili, told our correspondent Mountasser Abdallah that the Israeli raid on Deir Zahrani (Nabatieh), carried out around 11:30 a.m., targeted a two-story residential building that was completely destroyed. A neighboring building was also destroyed. According to him, rescue teams have already recovered the body of one person killed from under the rubble, as well as a number of wounded people, while searches are continuing for those missing.

The Health Ministry, meanwhile, released an initial toll from the strike on Deir Zahrani, which has so far killed two people and wounded nine.

Meanwhile, an exodus has taken place following the strike, causing traffic congestion on the road linking Deir Zahrani to Sidon, the capital of southern Lebanon, according to our correspondent. Many families have also chosen to leave other areas of Nabatieh for safer areas, fearing that the escalation could spread.

Salam: Israel must end the escalation in the South

Reacting to the Israeli escalation since this morning in southern Lebanon, which has already killed several people, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam posted on X, saying that these attacks “on the city of Nabatieh, the villages of Ansar, Deir Zahrani and others … are extremely serious and hinder efforts to stabilize the situation in the South.”

“The seven people killed in the Israeli raid on the village of Ansar are not ‘military infrastructure’; the children and women who were killed are not military targets,” he stressed.

He continued: “The responsibility for managing any military infrastructure, if it exists on Lebanese territory, rests exclusively with the Lebanese state, through the Lebanese Army and its legitimate institutions, and the presence [of such infrastructure] does not give Israel the right to violate Lebanese territory or endanger the civilian population.”

“Israel must stop this escalation. The security of our people and their right to live on their land are neither negotiable nor subject to compromise,” Nawaf concluded.

Israeli aircraft carries out strike on building in Deir Zahrani

An airstrike carried out by a fighter jet targeted the town of Deir Zahrani (Nabatieh) in the morning, our correspondent in the region reports.

According to local media, the strike reportedly caused casualties.

Among Ansar victims, a mother and her four children

Photo provided by our correspondent Muntasser Abdallah

Among the Ansar victims, a mother and her four children were killed in the Israeli strike on Ansar.

7 killed in Israeli strike on Ansar, highest toll since late June

An Israeli strike overnight from yesterday to today on Ansar, in an area of southern Lebanon that had been spared for two months, killed seven people, the highest toll since the mid-June cease-fire.

According to information from our southern Lebanon correspondent, the strike was carried out around 4:30 a.m. on two buildings in the area known as Qalaat al-Mais, between Ansar Zrarieh. The area had already been regularly targeted during the 15-month cease-fire that preceded the war launched in March by Hezbollah fire.

Several missiles were fired, causing extensive damage. Rescue teams immediately went to the scene and pulled nine people from the rubble, including seven who were killed, according to local sources.

Find our summary of the situation in southern Lebanon here.

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of developments in South Lebanon, where the Israeli army, which continues to occupy more than 600 square kilometers along the border and destroy village after village, is continuing its escalation.

We will also follow the situation in the Middle East, where tensions remain high between the United States and Iran.