Israeli strikes in south Lebanon a ‘violation of international law’: PM

Lebanon’s government has accused Israel of deliberately destroying homes and civilian infrastructure across the country’s south amid a ceasefire that has grown increasingly fragile.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Wednesday said Israel’s “attacks, incursions, demolitions and the systematic destruction of homes represent a serious violation of the principles and rules of international law and international humanitarian law”.

Salam rejected Israel’s claims that villages it had destroyed were military sites, saying the claim “does not stand up to any logic and cannot be used as an excuse for destroying them, displacing their inhabitants and preventing them from returning”.

His statement came hours after Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz visited southern Lebanon and said Israeli forces were “destroying the underground infrastructure” there and “destroying all the houses”.

Katz separately said Israeli troops would not withdraw from occupied zones in Lebanon, Syria or Gaza. Israeli attacks wounded several people in southern Lebanon on the same day.

A US State Department official told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that Washington “expects all parties to act in a manner consistent with the framework they agreed to”, adding that Israel “has clearly stated that it has no territorial ambitions in Lebanon”.

On August 5, Israel launched strikes on the town of Mansouri after accusing Hezbollah of a ceasefire violation that killed two Israeli soldiers near Majdal Zoun.

The Israeli military ordered residents to evacuate Mansouri , the first such order issued in weeks, while a separate attack elsewhere killed one person and wounded 11. A day later, an Israeli strike hit a home in Burj al-Shemali.