BEIRUT: Israeli strikes wounded 24 people in south Lebanon Tuesday despite a ceasefire in force for more than six weeks, the Lebanese health ministry said.
The first strike hit the southern town of Nabatiyeh Al-Fawqa, wounding 20 people, the ministry said, updating a previous toll of 14 injured.
It added that another strike on the neighboring town of Zawtar wounded four people.
At around 7:30 pm, an Israeli drone carried out “a strike with a guided missile targeting a small vegetable truck” in Nabatiyeh Al-Fawqa, the state-run National News Agency reported.
The town lies north of the Litani River but only around 10 kilometers (seven miles) from the Israeli border.
NNA later reported a second strike “less than two kilometers (a little over a mile) away from the first strike” on the Zawtar-Nabatiyeh road.
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the strikes, calling them “another violation of Lebanese sovereignty and a blatant breach of the ceasefire arrangement,” according to a statement from his office.
He added that he had contacted the head of the ceasefire monitoring committee, US Major General Jasper Jeffers, and urged him “to take a firm stance to ensure Israel complies with its obligations under international law.”
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee confirmed the strikes, saying they targeted Hezbollah vehicles transferring weapons in south Lebanon.
Israeli “aircraft struck a Hezbollah truck and an additional vehicle that transferred weapons in the areas of Chaqif and Nabatieh in southern Lebanon,” he said on X.
The military “is determined to continue to operate in accordance with the understanding between Israel and Lebanon, despite Hezbollah’s attempts to return to southern Lebanon, and will operate against any threat posed to the state of Israel,” he added.
Under the terms of the November 27 ceasefire, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah is supposed to pull its forces back north of the Litani River and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure to its south.