Israel continued to launch attacks on southern Lebanese towns as well as the capital, Beirut , on Wednesday, amid fears that the Israeli military would annex Lebanese territory up to the Litani River .
Lebanon's state media reported that Israeli strikes and artillery shelling persisted in several towns in the Nabatieh, Bint Jbeil, Jezzine, and Marjayoun districts.
Beirut's southern suburb was also targeted in Wednesday's strikes, after the Israeli military issued threats for Haret Hreik , Ghobeiri, Laylaki, Hadath, Burj al-Barajneh, Tahwita al-Ghadir, and Chiyah.
An AFP correspondent saw a street covered in debris, with shattered cement and warped metal following a Wednesday morning strike. An apartment building’s upper floors were also damaged, the correspondent added.
This comes after Defence Minister Israel Katz on Tuesday threatened that the Israeli military would seize the area up to the Litani River, roughly around 30 kilometres of Lebanese territory, adding that residents wouldn't be allowed to return until the security of northern Israel was "guaranteed".
In retaliation, Hezbollah said it fired over 100 rockets into northern Israel between 7:30am and 9:30am local time, and launched attacks on the border areas of Naqoura and Qawzah, where Israeli forces have been attempting to advance for the past two weeks.
The group added that it had struck an Israeli warplane with surface-to-air missiles, marking the first such claim in the war.
This comes after the announcement on Tuesday of 53 military operations carried out to counter Israeli military ground movement along the Lebanese-Israeli border, in addition to targeting Israeli positions, bases, troop deployments, Merkava tanks and settlements in northern Israel.
On Tuesday, Israeli forces hit 69 sites in Lebanon , killing at least nine people in the Palestinian refugee camp of Mieh Mieh in the southern Sidon area, and in the towns of Aadloun and Habboush.
Two paramedics were also killed after an Israeli airstrike hit their moving motorcycle in the Nabatieh area on Wednesday.
The intensified Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed at least 1,072 people since 2 March. Among those killed are 42 paramedics, as the Israeli army openly declared last week it would target ambulances, alleging without evidence that the vehicles were being used to "transport weapons". Israel expanded its attacks on Lebanon after Hezbollah fired rockets in response to near-daily violations of the November 2024 ceasefire deal, and following the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei by the US and Israel, who have been waging a war in Iran since 28 February. International condemnations French President Emmanuel Macron , an ally of Lebanon, stressed in a phone call with Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Tuesday the need for a de-escalation in the country.
In a post on X, Macron said: "France's priority is de-escalation, support for the efforts of the Lebanese government, which has taken strong and courageous decisions to uphold the sovereignty of the Lebanese state, and the preservation of infrastructure and civilian populations, who are the primary victims of this crisis."
He said that resuming direct talks between Israel and Lebanon "is an opportunity that must be seized" in order to de-escalate the conflict, and that France is "actively working towards this goal".
The French president also stressed that the situation in the war-battered Gaza Strip "must not be forgotten" amid the ongoing conflicts in Iran and Lebanon.
Spain Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez , who has been highly critical of Israel's conduct in Gaza, accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of seeking to "inflict the same level of destruction and damage" on Lebanon as Israeli forces have done in the Palestinian since October 2023.
In another condemnation of Israel, Canada's foreign ministry on Tuesday slammed Israel’s plans to control southern Lebanon up to the Lirani River, adding that the country’s "sovereignty and territorial integrity must not be violated".