ADLOUN, Lebanon (AP) 鈥� Israeli air force and artillery strikes were reported on Saturday near the strategic mountain site of a Crusader-built castle in southern Lebanon as fighting raged in villages close to the city of Nabatiyeh.
Lebanon鈥檚 state-run National 太子探花 Agency reported airstrikes and artillery shelling near the Crusader-built Beaufort castle that is about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the Israeli border and overlooks wide parts of southern Lebanon. The strategic castle was held by Israeli troops for 18 years until they withdrew from Lebanon in May 2000.
Separately, an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip killed a nurse, the latest death since last year’s shaky ceasefire.
Israel鈥檚 military issued for more than a dozen villages in southern Lebanon, a day after Lebanese and Israeli military officials held their in decades at the Pentagon.
The situation in southern Lebanon was discussed during a meeting on Saturday between Lebanon鈥檚 president and prime minister who later said in a statement that they will intensify their contacts to make Israel stop demolition and bulldozing of homes and historical sites as well as its .
Later on Saturday, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam used a televised speech to criticize Israeli airstrikes and its invasion of Lebanon. He accused Israel of 鈥渋mplementing a policy of total destruction of cities and towns” and of carrying out mass displacements.
He said Israel is trying to 鈥渦proot Lebanon鈥檚 memory and erase the people鈥檚 history,鈥� adding that the government will do all it can to achieve a ceasefire, an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon and the return of displaced people to their homes.
Salam said the direct negotiations are not guaranteed to produce results and at the same time they don鈥檛 mean a surrender for Lebanon. 鈥淭hey are currently the least costly option,鈥� Salam said. Another round of talks are scheduled to take place in Washington on Tuesday.
Israel will not gain security and stability through the 鈥渟corched earth policy,鈥� Salam said.
Israel and Hezbollah exchange strikes despite ceasefire
Israeli troops have been advancing for days in villages , including Yohmor and Zawtar al-Sharqieh, near the city of Nabatiyeh, after they crossed the strategic Litani River, which the Israeli military has used as a de facto boundary.
The incursion is the deepest by Israeli troops since the withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000.
Large areas to the south are under Israeli military control, despite an April 17, U.S.-brokered .
The National 太子探花 Agency reported airstrikes on different parts of southern Lebanon, including in the village of Ansar that killed three people. A drone strike on a road linking the village of Ebba with Nabatiyeh wounded two Lebanese soldiers, the army said in a statement.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, said its fighters fired rockets at northern Israel鈥檚 largest city, Kiryat Shmona, on the border with Lebanon. The group said its attack was in retaliation for airstrikes that killed civilians in Lebanon. Hezbollah later said it also fired rockets toward the northern city of Safed.
Among those killed in southern Lebanon on Friday was Qais al-Bakir, his pregnant wife and their six children. The Syrian family died in an Israeli airstrike on the coastal village of Adloun, north of the city of Tyre.
The family, which belonged to Syria鈥檚 minority Alawite sect, had fled to Lebanon from the central province of Hama after the fall of in Syria in December 2024. Some members of Assad鈥檚 Alawite sect have been subjected to by members of Islamist groups who removed the former president from power.
The family had been living in a sheep farm and they received no warning in advance of the strike on the village, said Ali al-Bakir the brother of the man killed. He said the family plans to send the bodies for burial in their hometown in Syria.
鈥淗e worked in farming and all he cared about was to feed his children,鈥� his brother said.
The latest Israel-Hezbollah war started on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel two days after Israel and the U.S. attacked Iran.
It has left 3,350 people dead in Lebanon and over displaced.
Further strikes in Gaza
In the , a Palestinian nurse was killed in an Israeli strike on Saturday, hospital authorities said. The strike hit a Hamas-manned police point in the central city of Deir al-Balah. At least three other people were wounded, according to the city鈥檚 Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, which received the casualties.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The nurse was identified as Jamal Abu Aoun, who worked at Yafa Hospital in Deir al-Balah. His funeral was held at noon in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital鈥檚 courtyard.
He was the latest fatality among Palestinians in the coastal enclave since a fragile October ceasefire deal attempted to halt a more than two-year war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
While the heaviest fighting has subsided, the shaky ceasefire has seen almost daily Israeli fire. Israeli forces have carried out repeated airstrikes and frequently fire on Palestinians near military-held zones, killing at least 929 Palestinians, according to Gaza鈥檚 health ministry.
The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by United Nations agencies and independent experts. But it does not give a breakdown of civilians and militants.
Militants have carried out shooting attacks on troops, and Israel says its strikes are in response to that and other violations. Four Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire.
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Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.
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