Israel warns of intensifying attacks against Hezbollah in south Lebanon

MARJAYOUN - Israel warned Sunday that its military would step up its attacks against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, a day after the Lebanese health ministry reported four people killed in an Israeli air strike.

Despite a November 2024 ceasefire with the Lebanese militant group, Israel maintains troops in five areas in southern Lebanon and has kept up regular strikes.

"Hezbollah is playing with fire, and the president of Lebanon is dragging his feet," Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.

"The Lebanese government's commitment to disarm Hezbollah and remove it from southern Lebanon must be implemented. Maximum enforcement will continue and even intensify -- we will not allow any threat to the residents of the north."

Thousands of Israelis living near the northern border with Lebanon were forced to evacuate their homes for months after Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel following the outbreak of the war in Gaza in October 2023.

That set off a more than year-long conflict that culminated in two months of open war before last year' ceasefire was agreed.

The Iran-backed militant group, which opposes Israel, has been badly weakened by the war but remains armed and financially resilient.

In September 2024, Israel killed the group's longtime chief, Hassan Nasrallah, along with many other senior leaders over the course of the war.

Since the ceasefire, the United States has increased pressure on Lebanese authorities to disarm the group, a plan opposed by Hezbollah and its allies.

- Latest strike -

Israel never stopped carrying out air strikes on Lebanon in spite of the truce -- usually saying it is targeting Hezbollah positions -- and has stepped up the attacks in recent days.

On Thursday, Israeli ground troops carried out a deadly raid into southern Lebanon, prompting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to order the army to confront such incursions.

Aoun had called for talks with Israel in mid-October, after US President Donald Trump helped broker a ceasefire in Gaza.

But Aoun later accused Israel of responding to his offer by intensifying its air strikes, the latest of which killed four people in Nabatiyeh district on Saturday, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

The official Lebanese National News Agency reported that the Israeli army hit a car "with a guided missile".

The Israeli military confirmed the strike, saying it killed a member of Hezbollah's Radwan Force in southern Lebanon.

"The terrorist was involved in transferring weapons and in efforts to reestablish Hezbollah's terrorist infrastructure in southern Lebanon,"the military said, adding three other members of the group were also killed.

"The terrorists' activities constituted a threat to the State of Israel and its civilians, and a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon."