Lebanon reports Israeli strikes as Hezbollah claims attacks against troops in south

An Israeli strike hit a vehicle in the city of Tyre, in southern Lebanon on Monday, Lebanese state media reported, as Israel vowed to persist with its attacks on Hezbollah.

Hezbollah meanwhile said it had targeted Israeli troops in Lebanon, but did not claim any attacks on Israeli territory.

The strike in Tyre came with Israel and Iran saying they had brought an end to a round of tit-for-tat attacks on each other begun by Tehran over the Israeli campaign in Lebanon.

Iran has warned that it will resume its attacks if Israel persists in striking Lebanon, but Israeli leaders on Monday insisted they would not be deterred.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported that “an enemy airstrike targeted a car with a missile in the city of Tyre, near the Lebanese Red Cross building”.

An AFP photographer in Tyre saw flames erupting from a car on a coastal road as residents gathered at the scene and an ambulance and paramedics headed towards it.

The Lebanese Red Cross later said that four paramedics were wounded by glass shrapnel from the strike.

Reporting airstrikes from the early morning, the NNA said Israeli raids hit more than a dozen locations in the south, including Burj al-Shemali near Tyre.

The health ministry later said that seven people, “including a Syrian child and a woman”, were killed in a dawn strike on the town of Zifta in Nabatieh district.

Meanwhile a Lebanese culture ministry official said Israeli bombardment on the city of Tyre a day earlier damaged a UNESCO World Heritage site there, and AFP correspondents saw dust and debris at the site.

– ‘Acts of aggression’ –

While announcing the end of its attacks on Israel, Iran’s military central command said that “should acts of aggression and hostility continue, including in southern Lebanon, much more severe and crushing measures than before will follow”.

But Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz vowed after the warning that the military would “continue to operate in Lebanon against the terrorist organisation Hezbollah”.

He added that Israel would strike Beirut’s southern suburbs in retaliation for every attack on northern Israel.

“We categorically reject Iran’s threats. Any Iranian attempt to link Lebanon and Iran and attack Israel will be met with great force, as happened yesterday,” Katz said.

The Israeli military then issued an evacuation warning for an area of Tyre.

Iran insists a halt to the broader Middle East conflict must include a ceasefire in Lebanon, and on Sunday fired missiles at Israel in response to Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs earlier in the day.

On Monday, Hezbollah claimed a series of attacks on Israeli troops who have invaded south Lebanon.

Israel’s military intercepted three projectiles fired from Lebanon, an AFP correspondent near the border reported, as Israel’s military said the munitions had targeted its forces operating in Lebanon’s south.

Lebanon says Israeli strikes have killed more than 3,600 people since Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East conflict on March 2 with rocket fire at Israel to avenge the US-Israeli killing of Iran’s supreme leader.

After an April 17 ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah began, Israel announced a so-called Yellow Line inside Lebanese territory about a dozen kilometres from its northern border where its ground troops are operating.