BEIRUT, (PIC)
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli war minister Israel Katz said on Monday they had ordered the army to strike targets in Beirut’s southern suburbs, hours after Israel announced that one soldier had been killed and others wounded in clashes in southern Lebanon.
“We instructed the army to strike targets in Beirut’s southern suburbs,” Netanyahu and Katz said in a joint statement.
Axios, citing Israeli officials, reported that Tel Aviv had asked the Trump administration for a green light to carry out large-scale strikes in Beirut.
US sources also indicated that recent ceasefire efforts were losing momentum, warning that Washington could give Israel wider room to escalate.
Earlier Monday, Israeli occupation forces (IOF) announced that a sergeant from the Maglan commando unit had been killed and three other soldiers wounded in fighting in southern Lebanon.
Israeli media, including Yedioth Ahronoth and Channel 12, said the soldier was killed when an Israeli force was targeted by a drone launched by Hezbollah near the village of Yahmar, close to the strategic Beaufort Castle.
The IOF said it had seized control of Beaufort Castle on Sunday. The site overlooks the Litani River and Wadi Saluki.
In a statement on Monday, the IOF said 137 officers and soldiers had been wounded in southern Lebanon over the past two weeks.
Since fighting resumed in early March, 26 Israeli soldiers have been killed and 1,180 wounded, including 69 seriously and 134 moderately.
The IOF said 14 soldiers had been killed since the ceasefire was announced, 10 of them in attack drone strikes.
Sirens sounded in several towns in the Upper Galilee, including Metula, Margaliot and Manara, after rockets and drones were detected from southern Lebanon.
The Israeli Broadcasting Authority said Hezbollah had been firing rockets and drones toward northern Israel since dawn.
The Israeli army said it destroyed a rocket launcher used to target the Tiberias area overnight and fired an interceptor missile at a “suspicious aerial target” launched from Lebanon.
Hezbollah said in two separate statements that it had confronted an Israeli Hermes 450 drone over southern Lebanon and targeted an Israeli force on the eastern outskirts of Yahmar al-Shaqif.
The group said the attacks came in response to Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement.
Israel also expanded evacuation orders in southern Lebanon, issuing urgent warnings to residents of several towns, including Aqbiyeh, Zrariyeh, Marwaniyeh, Snaiber, Najariyeh, Adousiyeh and Khirbet Basal in Sidon district, as well as Melekh and Kfar Houneh in Jezzine district.
Israeli aircraft also struck the outskirts of Toul and carried out raids on the towns of Mefdoun and Harouf in southern Lebanon.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Sunday that the death toll from Israeli attacks on Lebanon since March 2 had risen to 3,412, with 10,269 wounded.
More than one million people have also been displaced, with widespread destruction to homes and infrastructure.