Woman killed, children injured as Israel attacks Lebanon

A woman was killed and several children were injured during Israel’s latest attacks in Lebanon.

Civilians are the majority of victims of attacks over the past 24 hours.

The Israeli army said on Friday that it has hit 40 Hezbollah sites in the past day in renewed air strikes across southern Lebanon. Hezbollah said it retaliated with several attacks on Israeli forces within Lebanese territory.

Al Jazeera reporter Zeina Khodr reported on Friday that Israel is increasingly deploying a military “campaign of erasure” in southern Lebanon, mirroring tactics it used in Gaza.

Israeli troops have been systematically destroying civilian homes, infrastructure and water networks and aiming to make southern Lebanon unliveable, activists and observers say.

Human rights activists have called the destruction a war crime.

Tens of thousands of people in villages along the southern border have been affected by Israeli strikes.

Mounir Kabalan, a resident of Mais al Jabal in Lebanon’s southern Marjayoun district, whose home was damaged, said, “I felt overwhelmed with deep sorrow because this house … I have a lot of memories with my parents, my relatives, especially my grandmother. What hurt me when I saw the uprooted olive trees that I planted with my father and brothers in 2007, and we took care of it like we took care of our children.”

‘No-go area’

Israel has shared satellite imagery showing entire neighbourhoods levelled in southern Lebanon.

The Israeli army is occupying a zone that is roughly 10 percent of Lebanon’s territory. It has created a so-called “Yellow Line“, south of which is a no-go area because anyone who approaches it risks being targeted.

On Thursday, the ⁠Israeli military had warned residents of ⁠eight Lebanese towns ⁠outside what it calls the “buffer zone” to leave their homes ‌immediately before the strikes. Israel has issued the same forced evacuation order to 20 villages previously.

The attacks are continuing despite a US-brokered “ceasefire” which began last month. In all, 40 people have been killed in Israeli air strikes during the truce.

More than one million people have been displaced by Israel’s war on Lebanon.

Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun and Lebanon’s speaker Nabih Berri are reported to be divided on how to approach negotiations to end the war with Israel.

On Thursday, the US embassy in Beirut said Lebanon is “at a crossroads”, and its people have an opportunity to reclaim their country through peace talks with Israel.