BEIRUT — The Lebanese army on Saturday withdrew its troops from a base in a southern Lebanese village after Israeli troops advanced in an area nearby, a military official said.
Israel’s military appears to be trying to make as many gains as possible in case a U.S.-Iran agreement is reached to end the war in the region, which is likely to include Lebanon.
The departure from the army barracks in Kfar Tebnit came as the Israeli military issued an evacuation warning for about 20 locations, including the southern city of Nabatiyeh and nearby villages.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported airstrikes Saturday on different villages near Nabatiyeh, including one that killed two people in Deir al-Zahrani. It added that Nabatiyeh was subjected to artillery shelling Saturday.
A senior Lebanese military official told the Associated Press that the Lebanese army moved its forces from the Kfar Tebnit barracks following an incursion by Israeli forces into the area. The official, who did not elaborate, spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
Israeli troops were probably trying to capture the strategic Ali Taher hill on the edge of Kfar Tebnit that overlooks large parts of Nabatiyeh and some of the roads that link the city with nearby villages.
Israeli troops held the Ali Taher hill for 18 years until they withdrew from Lebanon in May 2000.
The militant group Hezbollah said in statements that its fighters carried out several attacks Saturday including one in the morning that targeted Israeli troops on the edge of Kfar Tebnit with two drones.
Hezbollah has been using fiber-optic drones since the start of the latest war, inflicting casualties among Israeli troops.
In late May, Israeli troops captured a nearby strategic mountain topped with the Crusader-era Beaufort Castle in the deepest incursion into the country since 2000.
The Lebanese army said that later Saturday an Israeli drone targeted a soldier who was traveling near a hospital in Nabatiyeh, but missed. Later, however, another drone struck the soldier as he traveled on the road linking Nabatiyeh with the nearby village of Kfar Rumman, seriously wounding him.
The push on the edge of Kfar Tebnit came a day after Pakistan’s prime minister said that the United States and Iran have agreed to wording of a deal aimed at ending their war in the Middle East and that mediators are working with both sides to finalize it.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Iranian state TV on Friday that both sides were working toward signing an initial agreement declaring an end to the war “on all fronts, including Lebanon.”
Senior Hezbollah official Hussein Haj Hassan told Al Jazeera TV that his group has been informed by Iranian officials that Lebanon will be part of a future ceasefire extension deal between the U.S. and Iran.
Iran is Hezbollah’s main backer, supplying the group with different types of weapons over the last four decades as well as billions of dollars.
Attacks by Israel and Hezbollah have continued despite a truce that went into effect April 17 and was renewed several times but remains a ceasefire in name only.
Israel continues to occupy large swaths of southern Lebanon while battling Hezbollah fighters, causing civilian casualties and infrastructure damage. Hezbollah, which is not part of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon, has launched frequent rocket and drone attacks.
The latest Israel-Hezbollah war began March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel two days after the U.S. and Israel began their attacks on Iran, igniting the war.
More than 3,700 people have been killed in Lebanon in the latest fighting, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. Also, 30 Israeli soldiers and a defense contractor have been killed in or near southern Lebanon, and two civilians have been killed in northern Israel, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
Mroue writes for the Associated Press.
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