Israel launches strikes in southern Lebanon after evacuation warning

WEB DESK: The Israeli military launched targeted strikes in southern Lebanon on Wednesday after issuing an evacuation warning to residents of a village, saying the operation was carried out in response to what it described as a Hezbollah violation.

The strikes came a day after the latest round of US-mediated talks between Israel and Lebanon was held in Rome.

The Lebanese health ministry said an Israeli strike on the southern town of Tibnin killed one person and wounded 12 others.

The Israeli military had said in an earlier statement it had issued an evacuation warning to the village ​of Mansouri, about 25 km (15 miles) from Tibnin, saying it would act against the Iran-backed group in the area.

The warning was the first online warning by the military for Lebanon in more than a month.

It dropped flyers on the village in late June telling residents to leave as Israel had added Mansouri to a self-declared buffer zone in southern Lebanon, a senior Lebanese military official told Reuters at the time.

Some Lebanese farmers had been continuing to access their fields and homes in the towns despite Israeli forces operating nearby.

On June 26, Lebanon and Israel agreed to a US-brokered ​security arrangement intended to ease hostilities along the border, but Israel said it would maintain a security zone in southern Lebanon to eliminate the threat of Hezbollah.