The Israeli military said on Saturday that it had attacked Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon in response to projectiles fired by the militia group. According to the state news agency NNA, Israel targeted about a dozen areas overnight and in the morning.
Hezbollah said the militia had attacked Israeli soldiers advancing toward the town of Nabatieh. Hezbollah also said Israel bears full responsibility for all ceasefire violations, AFP reported.
Sixteen people were killed and twelve wounded in Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon on Saturday, according to the Lebanese Civil Defense. Lebanon's Health Ministry raised the death toll for Friday to 83. In total, more than 4,000 people have been killed in the war between Israel and Hezbollah since March 2, according to Health Ministry figures.
But accounts of who attacked whom first continue to diverge.
Senior Hezbollah representative Hassan Fadlallah, also a member of Lebanon's parliament, said on Saturday that the group has the right to respond to Israeli attacks.
“The resistance movement has every right to confront the enemy when it attacks us, because it is the aggressor and the occupier,” Fadlallah said in a statement.
The attacks came just hours after Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Shiite militia in Lebanon, agreed to a ceasefire deal. Meanwhile, Israel said on Friday that its troops intended to remain in southern Lebanon and that its military would continue to respond to Hezbollah threats and attacks.
