Strikes hit south Lebanon city after Israeli evacuation warning

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BEIRUT: Several strikes hit the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh on Tuesday (May 26) after an unprecedented Israeli evacuation warning, an AFP correspondent said, a day after at least 11 were killed in a strike in the country's east.

Hezbollah meanwhile said it confronted Israeli troops trying to advance into a town that overlooks the city.

The latest strikes come after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday ordered his military to intensify attacks on Hezbollah to "crush" the Iran-backed group.

Avichay Adraee, the Israeli military's Arabic-language spokesman said on X on Tuesday that residents of the entire city "must evacuate your homes immediately and move north of the Zahrani River".

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An AFP correspondent in the city reported airstrikes following the warning and saw plumes of smoke rising from various locations within it.

Largely deserted since the start of the latest Israel-Hezbollah war on Mar 2, Nabatieh has faced relentless strikes despite an Apr 17 truce.

In a statement, the health ministry said that "yesterday's Israeli enemy airstrike on the town of Mashghara in West Bekaa resulted in a preliminary toll of 11 martyrs, including two girls and a woman, and 15 wounded, including a child".

Rescuers were still clearing the rubble in the eastern town, the ministry added.

The Israeli military in a statement said it launched "several strikes ... in the area of Mashghara" on "Hezbollah infrastructure sites where terrorists' activity was identified".

Later on Tuesday, it issued an evacuation warning for the town as well as Sohmor near it.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) also reported several Israeli strikes across the south and east.

A strike on Srifa in the south killed a rescuer and wounded two others from the Risala Scouts association, linked to the Hezbollah-allied Amal movement, according to the health ministry, raising the rescuer death toll in the war to 120.

DRONE ATTACKS

Evacuation warnings near the southern city of Tyre on Monday caused mass panic and an exodus of residents of the historic city, according to an AFP correspondent.

The Israeli military said on Tuesday it had bombed more than 100 Hezbollah targets across Lebanon overnight.

Hezbollah meanwhile said in a statement that its fighters repelled an Israeli force early Tuesday that had advanced toward Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, which overlooks Nabatieh, following airstrikes and heavy artillery fire.

The group said it used drones and was fighting with Israeli soldiers in the town.

Netanyahu had last night ordered "an even greater acceleration of our operations" against Hezbollah.

"It is true that they are attacking us with drones, including fibre-optic drones, but we have teams working on countermeasures and we will solve this issue ... We will intensify our blows, increase our firepower, and we will crush them."

The Israeli army on Tuesday said it "intercepted several explosive drones launched by the Hezbollah terrorist organisation toward Israeli territory".

"Several additional explosive drones fell within Israeli territory, adjacent to the Israel-Lebanon border," it added, saying no injuries were reported.

Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon despite a truce in its war with Hezbollah, saying it is targeting the group, while the latter has claimed several attacks on Israeli positions in southern Lebanon and Northern Israel.

Lebanese authorities say more than 3,100 people have been killed by Israeli strikes since Mar 2, when Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war by attacking Israel in support of its backer Iran.

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