New Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon left around fifteen dead on Saturday, despite a ceasefire announced the day before following the memorandum of understanding signed by Tehran and Washington to end the war in the Middle East.
If the intensity of violence had initially dropped drastically between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, partly occupied by the Israeli army, it has resumed in the last two days and is endangering the Iranian-American text announced on Monday.
This intends to put an end to three months of war in the Middle East and provides for an end to hostilities "on all fronts, including in Lebanon" - a point on which Tehran, ally of the Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah, had insisted.
According to the Lebanese national information agency ANI, around twenty bombings were recorded on Saturday in eastern and southern Lebanon.
According to Civil Defense, 16 people were killed in the Nabatiyé region, where an AFP correspondent saw columns of smoke in the air.
The Lebanese army had earlier announced the death of one of its soldiers.
Israel said it was targeting Hezbollah positions in retaliation for attacks against its soldiers deployed in the south.
According to the Israeli army, “more than 50 projectiles” were fired by the Shiite organization against its soldiers during the night from Friday to Saturday.
Hezbollah has not claimed any attacks since the ceasefire announcement on Friday, but Hassan Fadlallah, a member of the movement, said it had "full right to confront" Israel "when it attacks us, because it is the aggressor and the occupier".
"There is talk of a ceasefire. For us, what matters is that the enemy fully and totally respects this ceasefire, and that it does not attempt to attack our country and our villages, nor to occupy new positions," declared the deputy.
From the Israeli side of the border, an AFP correspondent saw numerous explosions in southern Lebanon, with plumes of smoke rising above the Beaufort Fortress, which the Israeli army seized at the end of May.
- Iran-US talks on hold -
Hezbollah dragged Lebanon into the war in the Middle East in early March by firing rockets at Israel to avenge the death of the Iranian supreme leader, killed during American-Israeli strikes on Tehran.
The announcement of a new truce followed that of April 17, which had no effect.
The Israeli ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, assured Friday that Israel was committed to respecting the ceasefire, provided that Hezbollah did the same.
An American official told AFP on condition of anonymity that this new ceasefire had been negotiated by American and Qatari mediators, after discussions with Israel and
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