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Thousands fled their homes after Israel issued forced evacuation orders for nine villages in southern Lebanon before strikes that killed six people on Friday, a day after the Hezbollah militant group rejected a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon.
Hundreds of families left Anqoun, a village hosting at least 2,500 displaced people, after the Israeli military said it would soon operate against what it said were Hezbollah targets there, ordering residents to leave. The roads leading to Sidon, the closest large city, were choked with cars as families sought shelter.
The Israeli military carried out airstrikes across wide areas of south Lebanon, including Anqoun, with drone strikes hitting cars in the Nabatieh area while airstrikes and artillery pounded the town of Kfar Tebnit. The town is adjacent to Beaufort Castle, which Israeli troops seized this week, and en route to the city of Nabatieh.
Israel has issued forced evacuation orders for Nabatieh and much of the area’s surrounding towns as it advances further towards the city, now deserted but normally one of the largest in south Lebanon. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had ordered Israeli troops to deepen their invasion of south Lebanon after capturing the medieval Beaufort crusader castle on Sunday.
Hezbollah attacked Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, targeting them with rocket barrages near the castle, according to a statement by Hezbollah.
The fighting came a day after a US-brokered ceasefire agreed on by the Israeli government and Lebanon was rejected by Hezbollah. The militant group called the deal, under which it would have stopped firing but with Israel allowed to continue carrying out airstrikes, tantamount to “surrender”.
The Lebanese prime minister, Nawaf Salam, said on Friday: “Lebanon can no longer be a field for wars fought for others, nor can the south [of Lebanon] and its peoeple continue to pay the price for decisions they did not make.”
Hezbollah is not a party to the negotiations between Israel and the government of Lebanon. Instead it has passed its positions and messages primarily through Lebanon’s parliament speaker, Nabih Berri. Berri, days before the failed ceasefire was drafted, said he could guarantee that Hezbollah would stop firing in return for a cessation of fighting.
On Friday, Berri said Hezbollah would withdraw from the area south of the Litani River – 18 miles from the Lebanon-Israel border – only if Israeli troops withdrew from Lebanon and that a ceasefire was unconditional.
Israel now occupies more than 608 sq km of Lebanese territory. Berri also criticised the idea of “pilot zones” included in the proposed ceasefire, in which the Israeli army would have withdrawn from certain areas and the Lebanese army returned to ensure no Hezbollah members entered.
On Thursday, Israeli forces pulled out of the town of Dibbin in south Lebanon, the first time its troops had withdrawn from an area in south Lebanon since the war began on 2 March. Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers entered the town on Friday, reopening roads and clearing rubble for residents. It is unclear if the Israeli withdrawal was linked to the “pilot zones” proposal.
Lebanon and Israel have been engaging in dual-track negotiations in Washington to reach a ceasefire, but the ability of those talks to succeed without buy-in from Hezbollah are in serious doubt.
Donald Trump is invested in the Lebanese-Israeli negotiations as Iran has linked the success of a Lebanon ceasefire with its own negotiations with Washington. The US president has repeatedly sought to end the Iran war amid soaring gas prices and plummeting approval ratings, and has reportedly grown frustrated with Netanyahu’s campaign in Lebanon as it has complicated talks with Iran.
Netanyahu told ministers during a cabinet meeting on Thursday night that he would not seek government approval for the latest US-brokered ceasefire proposal with Lebanon unless Hezbollah first agreed to its terms, after Hezbollah rejected it on Thursday.
According to the Israeli news outlet Ynet, several ministers voiced opposition to the fragile truce, which Israeli and Lebanese representatives agreed to extend during talks in Washington on Wednesday. They urged Netanyahu to submit the proposal to the cabinet for a formal vote before Israel committed to it.
The Israeli prime minister rejected those demands, arguing that there was currently no agreement to approve because Hezbollah had yet to endorse the deal.
“At the moment, there is no deal,” he reportedly told ministers. “Hezbollah is opposed, and therefore I am not making a decision.” He added that if the group accepted the proposal, he would bring it before the cabinet for approval.
Fighting between Hezbollah and Israel started on 2 March after the militant group launched rockets at Israel in retaliation for the killing of the Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, triggering an Israeli invasion. More than 3,500 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon, while Hezbollah has killed at least 29 Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and three Israeli civilians.
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