The Israel Defense Forces on Saturday said it struck over 70 Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon, targeting rocket launchers and buildings allegedly used by the terror group to advance attacks, after the army issued evacuation warnings for over 20 locations.
The military added that it killed several Hezbollah operatives identified in areas of southern Lebanon where troops were operating.
Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported airstrikes in several areas covered by the evacuation warnings, including the villages of Rihan and Sujud, located not far from the city of Nabatieh, which is considered to be a Hezbollah stronghold.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese army said one of its soldiers was seriously wounded in an Israeli drone strike in southern Lebanon.
According to the Lebanese Armed Forces, the soldier was first targeted near a hospital in Nabatieh, without being injured.
He was then targeted again on a road between Kfar Roummane and Nabatieh, “resulting in him sustaining serious injuries,” the LAF said.
There was no immediate comment from the IDF.
The Lebanese army withdrew from its positions in the southern town of Kfar Tebnit, close to Nabatieh, as the IDF advanced in the area, according to Lebanese media.
Footage published by Lebanese media shows armored vehicles of the LAF driving away from Kfar Tebnit on the outskirts of Nabatieh.
In a separate statement, the IDF said that seven Hezbollah operatives who were operating out of a tunnel in southern Lebanon were killed in strikes this week.
According to the military, reservists of the 551st Paratroopers Brigade spotted two cells of Hezbollah gunmen emerging from the tunnel, which was used by Hezbollah to store weapons and to carry out attacks.
The operatives were killed in airstrikes, artillery shelling, and by explosive drones, the army said, adding that troops found weapons and equipment near the tunnel afterward.
Separately, the IDF said troops were continuing to scan a massive Hezbollah tunnel system near the Beaufort Castle. In one of the tunnel routes, where several Hezbollah operatives tried to break free several days ago, Israeli forces located maps “illustrating control of the area over the northern [Israel] communities.”
The major tunnel system, which the IDF says was built by Hezbollah with Iranian direct assistance, is to be demolished once troops have finished scanning it.
Additionally, the army said on Saturday that a suspected Hezbollah drone struck near Israeli forces operating in southern Lebanon. No injuries were caused in the incident.
Israel has struggled to fend off growing attacks on troops in southern Lebanon and northern Israel by Hezbollah’s first-person view drones, which are largely impervious to jamming technology. The terror group has also fired rockets and other types of UAVs, hitting both military and civilian targets.
The current bout of conflict began when Hezbollah started attacking northern Israel with rockets and drones in support of Iran days after the US and Israel launched the war with the Islamic Republic in late February.
An April ceasefire in Lebanon collapsed, and the fighting has continued despite a new conditional truce deal announced last week after Lebanese-Israeli talks in Washington.
Thirty IDF soldiers and one Defense Ministry civilian contractor have been killed in southern Lebanon amid fighting against Hezbollah since hostilities escalated amid the Iran war. Two civilians were also killed by Hezbollah rockets, and an Israeli civilian was mistakenly killed in the north by Israeli artillery shelling.
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