Israel military issues evacuation warning for dozen villages in south Lebanon

JERUSALEM, May 6: Israel's military on Wednesday issued a new evacuation warning for a dozen villages in south Lebanon ahead of expected strikes, despite a truce with Lebanon intended to halt fighting with Iran-backed Hezbollah.

"For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and move away from the villages and towns by at least 1,000 metres into open areas," the military's Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on X, listing 12 villages.

Despite the ceasefire agreement, Israeli forces and Hezbollah have traded fire daily, mostly in southern Lebanon.

Israel has also announced a "yellow line" extending up to 10 kilometres (six miles) inside southern Lebanon, inside which it has stationed troops and barred residents from returning.

Most of the villages included in Wednesday's evacuation warning are north of the Litani River, outside the area occupied by Israeli soldiers.

In a separate statement on Wednesday, the military said its air force hit several structures the previous day that were used by Hezbollah for military purposes.

"The structures were struck while Hezbollah terrorists were operating inside, advancing and carrying out terror attacks against IDF soldiers and the state of Israel," it said. "During the strikes, several terrorists were eliminated."

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war in early March, after Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a US-Israeli military campaign.

Israel responded with massive airstrikes across Lebanon and a ground invasion in the south. Since then, Israeli strikes in Lebanon have killed more than 2,700 people, including dozens since the April 17 ceasefire brokered by Washington between Israeli and Lebanese representatives.    �"AFP