Israel launched a fresh wave of attacks across Lebanon on Wednesday, killing 15 people. According to Lebanon’s National News Agency, the fatalities include 8 people, two of them children, killed in three Israeli drone strikes on a highway connecting Beirut to southern Lebanon. The agency uploaded photographs of the bombed cars in the Jiyeh area, showing the vehicles severely damaged, with their exteriors burnt and torn apart.
“It is a conflict that is taking a high toll on the civilians who live in these areas,” said Al Jazeer’a Zeina Khodr, reporting from Tyre in southern Lebanon.
The two nations are set to participate in a new round of direct negotiations mediated by the United States in Washington on Thursday. Hezbollah, which supports Iran in the ongoing conflict in West Asia, has strongly opposed the move.
The Israeli military issued forced displacement orders on Wednesday morning for the residents of Meiss el-Jabal, Yanouh, Burj Shemali, Hula, Debl and Aabbasiyyeh and warned that it would take action against the villages “forcefully”. The military told residents to move at least 1,000 metres away to “open areas” and threatened that anyone who remained would be “endangering their life”. Khodr reported that one of the few remaining hospitals in the area was also in the displacement zone.
“There are only three left in the whole district of Tyre, and there are still people who live here. At least 100,000 people still live here,” she said “These hospitals are really a lifeline for these people, but some of them, those who are injured, don’t make it because the road is a long journey to reach these hospitals and people are still in villages further south.”
According to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health, Israeli strikes had also killed 13 people in attacks on towns in the south on Tuesday, including two Lebanese Civil Defence paramedics, Hussein Jaber and Ahmad Noura. The ministry also reported on Wednesday that at least 512 people have been killed since the announcement of the broader ceasefire between Iran and the United States.
