Israel's military launched strikes on what it claimed were Hezbollah and Hamas in Lebanon on Monday night and early on Tuesday, in areas far from the border between the two countries.
The attacks came ahead of a meeting on Wednesday of the multinational US-led committee responsible for overseeing a November 2024 ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel, the first this year following a three-week gap.
Civilian representatives from Israel and Lebanon are expected to attend – the third time they will participate in the meetings that had initially involved only military officials from both sides.
Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun said the Israeli attacks “raise many questions regarding their timing”.
He said the continuing attacks were intended to “thwart all the efforts being made locally, regionally, and internationally to stop the continuing Israeli escalation, despite the responsiveness that Lebanon has shown to these efforts at various levels”.
Four people were killed in further Israeli attacks on the south on Tuesday, Lebanon's National News Agency reported. Two people died in a raid on a house in the village of Khirbet Salem and two others in a strike in the town of Kfardounine, both in Bint Jbeil district, it said.
The initial Israeli strikes on Monday were targeted at what an army spokesman described as “military infrastructure” belonging to Hamas in the villages of Al Manara and Ain Al Tineh in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, and to Hezbollah in Kfar Hatta and Aanan in the south.
There were no reports of casualties from those strikes, which came shortly after Israel ordered evictions of the sites.
Later on Monday night, the Israeli military carried out another wave of attacks on southern Lebanon, this time near Saksakiyah and the Zahrani region − significantly farther north than where the majority of Israeli strikes have taken place. There were no eviction orders.
At around 1am on Tuesday, an Israeli strike flattened a three-storey building in an industrial area in Ghazieh, about 4km from southern port city of Sidon.
Israel continues to carry out attacks in Lebanon almost daily despite a US-brokered ceasefire agreement in November 2024 that ended more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
Hours before Monday's air strikes, the Israeli military fired artillery shells towards Wadi Alma Al Shaab in southern Lebanon, the state National News Agency reported. A strike on Saturday in the southern town of Al Khiam injured three people travelling in a vehicle.
Israel accuses Hezbollah of trying to rebuild after suffering significant losses to its leadership and arsenal in 2024.
Last month, the commander of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) – one of the parties that oversees the ceasefire – told an Israeli TV channel that there was “no evidence” that Hezbollah is trying to rebuild its forces, despite Israel's claims.
The ceasefire requires Hezbollah to disarm and withdraw from areas south of the Litani River, about 30km from the border with Israel. Israel was also to withdraw from the five points of Lebanese territory it occupied. It has refused to do so.
Lebanon has faced growing pressure from the US and Israel to disarm Hezbollah, and its leaders fear that Israel could escalate strikes across the country to push Lebanon's leaders to confiscate Hezbollah's arsenal more quickly.
The Lebanese military is soon supposed to finish the first stage of its plan to bring all weapons under state control, which entails disarming Hezbollah south of the Litani River. The second stage would see the army focus on the area south of the Awali River.
Army commander Gen Rodolphe Haykal will give his monthly progress update at a Cabinet meeting on Thursday.
