The Israeli occupying forces continued their escalation on the ground in Lebanon, while targeting villages and towns in southern Lebanon and the western Bekaa through a systematic policy of destruction of residential neighborhoods, infrastructures and humanitarian centers.
Lebanese sources pointed out that in conjunction with the issuance of warnings for the immediate evacuation of dozens of villages, Hezbollah intensified its missile and air strikes, targeting the invading concentrations and vehicles of the occupation army, at a time when the political arena is witnessing overlapping complications on the eve of upcoming security talks in Washington.
Heavy airstrikes and death toll on the rise
On the ground, Israeli warplanes and drones launched a series of violent raids targeting the towns of Nabatieh, Tyre, Al-Mansouri, Tibnin, Al-Shehabiya, Arzon, Kabrikha, Tora, Sarifa and Al-Haniya, leaving massive destruction in residential buildings, electricity networks and roads.
The Lebanese Ministry of Health announced that the total toll of the Israeli aggression since March 2 has risen to 3,151 dead and 9,571 wounded.
Medical sources indicated that 11 martyrs were killed in a raid on Sir al-Gharbia, and that an entire Palestinian family (Al-Faris) was killed in the Al-Baqbouq area, north of Tyre, as well as deaths in targeted motorcycles in the towns of Aaba, Tora, and Arb Salim.
In a new violation of humanitarian conventions, Israeli aircraft targeted the regional center of the General Directorate of Civil Defense in Nabatieh with a direct strike that led to its complete collapse and damage to its vehicles, without causing any human casualties to evacuate the personnel in advance, raising the number of deaths in the health sector and paramedics to 123.
Urgent Warnings and Displacement Weapons
The spokesman of the occupation army, Avichai Adrei, issued a new urgent warning to the residents of 10 towns and villages in the southern and Bekaa (including: Nabatieh Al-Tahta, Al-Luwaiza, Sajd, Ein Qana, Haruf, Zabedin, Kafr Rumman, Al-Dweir, Adshit Al-Shuqif and Midoun), asking them to immediately evacuate and move away for a kilometer to the north, amid reports from the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation confirming the army's readiness to change its deployment plans and prepare to breach the "yellow line" separating the "yellow line" to deal with the field targets.
The Resistance Responds: Attacks and the Death of an Israeli Soldier
On the ground front, Hezbollah announced the implementation of a series of qualitative attacks targeting the movements of the occupation, where it rained rockets and artillery shells on the gatherings of Israeli vehicles and soldiers in the towns of Al-Bayada, Rashaf and the vicinity of the Deir Syrian River, in addition to launching an air attack with squadrons of swooping drones on a new site of the occupation in Al-Bayada.
For its part, the Israeli media admitted that an Israeli soldier was killed during the ongoing battles in southern Lebanon, while the occupation army confirmed that two other soldiers were injured as a result of the explosion of a booby-trapped drone, announcing at the same time the monitoring and destruction of a 100-meter-long tunnel in the area of Mount Ross (Har Dov).
The Political Landscape: The Battle for Sovereignty and the Pentagon Meeting
Politically, the failure to announce the "agreement of intentions" between Tehran and Washington caused disappointment in Lebanese circles, despite the assurances of the Iranian Foreign Ministry that the draft interim agreement includes a clause to stop the aggression against Lebanon away from the nuclear file.
Internally, Hezbollah Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem blew up an escalatory stance, reiterating the party's absolute rejection of direct negotiations with Israel, considering them a "net gain for the occupation," and calling on the Lebanese government to leave if it is unable to protect national sovereignty. Washington immediately responded with its Secretary of State Marco Rubio, accusing the party of leading a deliberate campaign to spread chaos and destabilize the country.
These developments come on the eve of an expected Lebanese-Israeli security meeting at the Pentagon headquarters next Friday, which was preceded by Washington imposing unprecedented sanctions on officers in the Lebanese army and General Security for the first time, in a move that observers interpreted as a US pressure card to adapt the Lebanese position ahead of the talks.