Lebanon says Israeli strikes on south kill 14 as attacks persist despite Iranian threat

BEIRUT – Israeli strikes on south Lebanon killed at least 14 people on June 8, the Lebanese health ministry said, including seven after Iran threatened to attack Israel again if it continued bombing the country.

Iran-backed Hezbollah meanwhile said it had targeted Israeli troops inside Lebanon, but did not claim any attacks on Israeli territory.

“An Israeli enemy raid on the city of Tyre, near the Red Cross centre, resulted in 5 martyrs and 8 wounded, four of whom were Red Cross paramedics,” the Lebanese health ministry said in a statement.

It later reported a strike on Marwanieh, also in the south, killed two people, including a child, and wounded 10.

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

Iran has warned that it will resume attacks if Israel continues striking Lebanon, but Israeli leaders on June 8 insisted they would not be deterred.

An earlier dawn strike on Zifta in the Nabatieh district killed seven people, “including a Syrian child and a woman”, according to the ministry.

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

An AFP photographer saw a car engulfed in flames on a coastal road as residents gathered and an ambulance and paramedics rushed to the scene.

Reporting air strikes from early morning, the NNA said Israeli raids hit more than a dozen locations in the south.

A Lebanese culture ministry official said Israeli bombardment the previous day had also damaged a UNESCO World Heritage site in Tyre, where AFP correspondents saw dust and debris.

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, with the NNA reporting a strike there later.

Iran insists a halt to the wider Middle East conflict must include a ceasefire in Lebanon, and on June 7 fired missiles at Israel in response to strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs earlier that day.

On June 8, 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 war 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, Israel established a so-called Yellow Line inside Lebanese territory, roughly a dozen kilometres from its northern border where ground troops are now operating.

Tehran’s international airport has reopened and flights carrying hajj pilgrims from Saudi Arabia have landed, Iranian news agencies reported early on June 9.

“The deputy head of airport operation of Imam Khomeini Airport Company announced the resumption of flights to Imam Khomeini Airport and the flights of pilgrims,” Mehr news agency reported.

Tehran’s international airport suspended all incoming flights on June 7 after Iranian missile strikes on Israel.

It was the latest closure for the airport, one of two serving the Iranian capital, which had only re-opened in April after being shut for weeks during the Middle East war. AFP