Lebanon says Israel kills 8 in south, strikes reported outside Beirut

Authorities reported eight people killed in Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon on Saturday, with more raids targeting a highway south of Beirut outside Hezbollah's traditional strongholds and far from the centre of ongoing fighting.

The fresh attacks came in spite of a three-week-old ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah that has done little to halt daily exchanges of fire, mostly in south Lebanon.

Hezbollah said Saturday that it had targeted troops in northern Israel with a drone in response to the continued strikes.

The Israeli military said "several" explosive drones were launched into Israeli territory, with one army reservist severely wounded and two others moderately injured in one of the attacks.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA), meanwhile, reported a series of Israeli strikes across the south, including one on the town of Saksakiyeh.

The health ministry said that raid "resulted in an initial toll of seven martyrs, including a girl, and 15 wounded, including three children".

The ministry reported that another Israeli strike on a motorbike in the city of Nabatieh hit "a Syrian national and his 12-year-old daughter".

"After they managed to move away from the site of the first strike, the drone attacked a second time," killing the father, the ministry said, adding the drone then targeted the girl "directly for a third time".

The girl was undergoing life-saving surgery, it added.

Israel's military had called on residents of nine villages to evacuate, saying it would act "forcefully" against Hezbollah, though neither of the two locations of the fatal strikes were included in the warnings.

NNA also reported that the "Israeli enemy launched two strikes on the Saadiyat highway", referring to a location around 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Beirut. It later reported a third strike nearby.

An AFP correspondent saw two destroyed cars and emergency workers along the road, which links Beirut with southern Lebanon.

- 'A new phase' -

Under the terms of the ceasefire released by Washington, Israel reserves the right to act against "planned, imminent or ongoing attacks".

Earlier on Saturday, its military said it had struck more than 85 Hezbollah infrastructure sites in the past 24 hours.

Israeli troops are also operating inside an Israeli-declared "yellow line", running around 10 kilometres (six miles) inside Lebanon along the border, where residents have been warned not to return.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah on Saturday warned of "a new phase, in which the resistance (Hezbollah) will not accept a return to pre-March 2".

Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East conflict on March 2 when it launched rockets at Israel to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes.

Even before then, Israel had carried out regular strikes targeting the group -- accusing it of seeking to rearm -- in spite of a 2024 ceasefire intended to end the last war between the foes.

Until March, Hezbollah had largely refrained from firing back.

"When it attacks our villages and suburbs, the enemy must expect a response, and this is what the resistance is doing," Fadlallah said, alluding to an Israeli attack this week on Beirut's southern suburbs that it said killed a Hezbollah commander.

In addition to its drone attack in northern Israel, Hezbollah on Saturday also claimed attacks on Israeli military targets inside Lebanon using rockets and drones.

Lebanese and Israeli representatives are set to hold a fresh round of direct talks in Washington next week.

A first meeting was held days before US President Donald Trump announced the ceasefire in Lebanon, and the second round as he announced a three-week extension.

Fadlallah said the meetings amounted to a "path of concessions", reiterating his party's call for the government to withdraw in favour of indirect talks.

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