Israeli airstrikes on Ansariya and Deir al-Zahrani killed 11 people including children, prompting Hezbollah to warn of retaliation and complicating US-brokered maritime border talks.
Israeli warplanes struck the southern Lebanese towns of Ansariya and Deir al-Zahrani in Nabatieh district, killing 11 people including three children and two women, and wounding two others, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. Israel said the strikes were in response to what it described as a serious breach of a ceasefire agreement by Hezbollah, which it said attacked Israeli forces in the Ali al-Tahir heights area inside a security zone.
In a statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Hezbollah attacked Israeli soldiers on Saturday morning, injuring three with serious wounds. The Israeli military responded by striking what it said was a Hezbollah command headquarters that issued the attack orders. The statement alleged that Hezbollah deliberately placed civilians at the military site, calling it the use of human shields to falsely accuse Israel of targeting civilians.
The Israeli military also said it killed Ali Sameer al-Hajj Hassan, described as a sector commander in Hezbollah's Radwan unit, in the Ansariya strike. It said family members of Hassan were present at the military command post and claimed they were not targets of the operation, but that Hassan used them as human shields.
Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem delivered what observers called the harshest speech to date against the Lebanese government and the ongoing maritime border negotiations with Israel. He warned that "anger could explode" among Hezbollah's constituency, saying the resistance movement was capable of changing the equation, while urging supporters to store their anger until the time came to use it.
The escalation coincided with efforts by U.S. General Joseph Clearfield, head of the military coordination group for Lebanon, to advance the negotiations toward an eighth round of talks scheduled for Rome by early September. Israeli officials have little incentive to allow talks to progress smoothly, viewing delay as tactically advantageous ahead of October elections in Israel.
The timing of the strike and Hezbollah's rhetoric suggest the party sees an Israeli military response as lending legitimacy to its longstanding opposition to the negotiations. Hezbollah contends that the talks do not protect Lebanon and that only "diplomacy backed by Iranian missiles", referring to U.S.-Iran negotiations, can restrain Israel. Some sources indicated that Iran has signaled it would not remain silent in the face of major Israeli military operations.
Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, speaker of Iran's consultative assembly and a senior negotiator, acknowledged direct ongoing contact with Hezbollah elements on the frontlines in Lebanon, noting his involvement in Lebanese affairs since 1985. He told Iranian intellectuals that the "resistance front" featured prominently in a memorandum of understanding with Washington aimed at asserting Lebanese sovereignty and territorial unity.
