Israel pursuing ‘scorched earth’ policy, says Lebanon PM, as more airstrikes hit country’s south | Lebanon
Lebanon’s prime minister accused Israel on Saturday of pursuing a “scorching policy” in his country’s south and called for a halt to fighting as Israel launched new airstrikes and issued evacuation warnings for more than a dozen locations.
A day after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his forces were advancing deeper into Lebanon, his counterpart Nawaf Salam warned that the country faced “dangerous” tensions and called for a “swift and genuine ceasefire.”
In a televised speech, Salam accused Israel of “pursuing a policy of decimation and collective punishment” by “destroying towns and villages and forcing their inhabitants into exile.”
He said this would bring “neither security nor stability” to Israel.
Still, he defended his government’s relationship with its southern neighbor after military delegations from both countries are scheduled to hold security talks in Washington on Friday and U.S.-brokered talks are scheduled to continue next week.
Salam said the outcome of the talks was “not guaranteed” but described them as “the least costly path for our country and our people.”
A ceasefire to stop fighting between Israel and Tehran-backed Hezbollah officially came into force on April 17, but was never implemented.
Both Israel and Hezbollah accuse each other of violating the ceasefire and justify their attacks by each other’s alleged violations.
The US statement issued after Friday’s Israel-Lebanon talks did not mention a ceasefire, but said “productive military-to-military talks” would shed light on the political meeting to be held next week.
Lebanon’s state-run National news agency (NNA) reported several Israeli strikes in the south on Saturday, and the Lebanese army said two of its soldiers were “seriously injured by an enemy Israeli drone” near the southern city of Nabatieh.
The Israeli army has issued new evacuation warnings covering villages near Nabatieh and other villages in the east of the country.
Hezbollah said it carried out several attacks targeting northern Israel on Saturday and clashed with Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon.
The group said in a statement that it confronted Israeli forces on the outskirts of the towns of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, Yohmor al-Shaqif and Dibbine, adding that the troops “have not yet managed to take control of the towns.”
The Israeli military told AFP that more than 25 shells were fired from Lebanon into Israel on Saturday, and air alert sirens sounded in the northern cities of Karmiel and Safed for the first time since the ceasefire, according to the army’s Home Front Command.
Public broadcaster Kan published footage shared on social media showing rockets falling into the sea off Nahariya, near Israel’s border, causing beachgoers to flee.
Netanyahu announced Friday that Israeli forces had advanced beyond the Litani River, which runs about 30 km (20 miles) north of the Lebanese-Israeli border, and “striked Hezbollah directly.”
Lebanon’s health ministry says more than 3,371 people have died in Israeli attacks since March 2, when Hezbollah pulled Lebanon into the Middle East war to support its backer Iran.
Hezbollah said it attacked Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s religious leader in US-Israeli attacks when the war began on February 28.
Iran has insisted that any deal to end the wider Middle East war must include Lebanon.
