Israeli forces carried out fresh air strikes in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, according to Lebanese state media, despite renewed criticism from US President Donald Trump over Israel’s military actions in the neighbouring country.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported that Israeli warplanes targeted the Nabatieh al-Fawqa area and the outskirts of Kfar Tebnit in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli military had not issued an immediate statement on the strikes. However, it has previously maintained that its operations in Lebanon are aimed at targeting the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.
The latest attacks come amid efforts to implement a US-Iran agreement aimed at reducing tensions across the Middle East. While the full text of the agreement has not been made public, mediator Pakistan has indicated that Lebanon is among the issues covered under the arrangement.
Speaking at the G7 summit in France on Tuesday, Trump publicly urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to exercise greater restraint.
“Netanyahu needs to be more responsible with respect to Lebanon,” Trump said, adding that Israel had been fighting Hezbollah for “too long and too many people are being killed.”
The US President also criticised a recent Israeli strike on Beirut, which was carried out in response to a cross-border rocket attack attributed to Hezbollah.
“I didn’t like that he did an attack… that was too much,” Trump said, while emphasising that he continued to maintain a strong relationship with the Israeli leader.
He further asserted the importance of US support for Israel, stating: “Without the United States, there would be no Israel. Without me, there would be no Israel because no other president was willing to do what I did.”
Despite growing international calls for de-escalation, hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah have continued since the announcement of the US-Iran agreement on Sunday.
Netanyahu said earlier this week that Israeli forces would remain in Lebanon “for as long as necessary” to address security concerns.
