| (BSS/AFP) - Israel staged fresh airstrikes in Lebanon on Saturday after earlier raids killed 10 people, according to media and the government in Beirut, targeting an area near the Syrian border.
The state-run National News Agency said there were five Israeli airstrikes shortly before midnight in the mountainous Nabi Sreij area on the outskirts of Brital, which had been spared from attacks since an April 17 ceasefire with Hezbollah.
An AFP correspondent in the southern city of Tyre reported hearing two blasts as one building on the outskirts was struck, then another inside the city, sending plumes of smoke into the air.
Earlier, civil defence rescuers and municipality police worked to evacuate people from the neighbourhood, using loudspeakers urging them to leave.
Israel`s military had issued two evacuation warnings via its Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee, one for the Lebanese village of Burj Rahal, saying troops were acting against Hezbollah.
Residents of two areas of Tyre were also told to leave, as they were "located near Hezbollah facilities that the (Israeli military) is about to operate against", Adraee said on X.
- Exchanges of fire -
Lebanon`s health ministry said Israeli strikes killed 10 people on Friday, including six rescuers and a child in continued exchanges of fire.
In a statement, the ministry said "six people were martyred", including two rescuers from the Risala Scouts association and a Syrian girl, in a strike on Deir Qanun al-Nahr village near the city of Tyre.
The association is linked with the Hezbollah-allied Amal movement.
An earlier strike on the southern town of Hanaway on Friday killed four rescuers from the Hezbollah-linked Islamic Health Committee, the ministry said.
Separately, the Israeli military said early on Friday morning that it had killed two people close to the border.
"IDF surveillance identified two armed individuals moving in a suspicious manner hundreds of metres from Israeli territory, in southern Lebanon," it said in a Telegram post.
"Following their identification and continuous monitoring by the IDF, the armed individuals were struck and eliminated in an aerial strike," the post said.
- `Rage, might and tyranny` -
The militant group, meanwhile, said it had targeted Israeli troops and positions inside Lebanon and in northern Israel near the border.
"We are fighting our enemy on the battlefield, and it has grown frustrated by the strength and heroism of our fighters... so it resorts to unleashing the hell of its rage, might and tyranny to destroy your villages and displace you," the head of Hezbollah`s parliamentary bloc, Mohammad Raad, said in a message to supporters shared on Friday.
He also repeated the group`s denunciation of direct talks between Israel and Lebanon.
It came after the United States announced sanctions against nine Hezbollah-linked individuals it accused of "obstructing the peace process in Lebanon".
These included two Lebanese military officers accused of sharing information with the group.
Since April 17, Israel has continued to launch strikes, carry out demolitions and issue evacuation orders in south Lebanon, saying it is targeting Hezbollah, which has also kept up attacks.
Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel on March 2 in retaliation for the killing of Iran`s supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes.
Israel responded with a massive series of airstrikes and a ground invasion in the country`s south, where its troops are operating inside an Israeli-declared "yellow line" running around 10 kilometres (six miles) inside Lebanon along the border.
Lebanon`s health ministry said on Friday that Israeli attacks have killed at least 3,111 people since the wider regional war began.
Israel`s military has reported the death of 22 personnel during the fighting.
Last week, the fragile ceasefire was extended for 45 days following a third round of direct talks between Lebanese and Israeli representatives in Washington, discussions that Hezbollah staunchly opposes.
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