JERUSALEM, Jun 1: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered attacks on the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut on Monday, signalling further escalation of a war that has complicated mediation towards resolving the US-Iran conflict.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said that Israeli attacks in Lebanon were among factors causing a delay to the diplomatic process to end the US-Iran war, reiterating that a Lebanon ceasefire was an integral part of any deal.
People began fleeing Beirut's southern suburbs, known as Dahiyeh, in response to the Israeli warning - the latest wave of displacement in a conflict that has uprooted more than 1 million people in Lebanon.
"There will be no situation in which Hezbollah attacks our cities and our citizens, and its terrorist headquarters in Beirut, in Dahiyeh, will remain out of bounds," Netanyahu said in a video statement.
Netanyahu said Israel was continuing to deepen its ground activity in Lebanon, where Israeli troops have carved out a self-declared security zone in the south, saying they aim to shield northern Israel from Hezbollah attacks.
Having pounded the southern suburbs of Beirut in the early weeks of the war, Israel has carried out only two strikes on the area since US President Donald Trump announced a Lebanon ceasefire on April 16, even as hostilities have raged in southern Lebanon.
The conflict erupted on March 2 when Hezbollah opened fire at Israel in solidarity with Iran as it came under US-Israeli attack.
"This is the third time since the ceasefire that we're going from place to place," said Naji Musulmani, 61, driving a pick-up truck full of mattresses through clogged Beirut streets away from the southern suburbs.
Having fled the south in recent days, Musulmani said he would head to the city of Tripoli in northern Lebanon.
Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz ordered the Israeli military to attack "terrorist targets" in the southern suburbs following Hezbollah's "repeated violations" of the ceasefire and "attacks against our cities and citizens", a statement from Netanyahu's office said.
The order followed an intensification of hostilities in the south over the weekend, with Israeli troops capturing the 900-year-old Beaufort Castle. �"REUTERS
