BEIRUT: Israel launched strikes across south Lebanon on Saturday after ordering evacuations from more than a dozen locations a day after its premier said Israeli forces had pushed even deeper into Lebanese territory.

Lebanon’s army said a “targeted” Israeli strike wounded two soldiers in the south, just a day after military delegations from both countries held landmark security talks in Washington.

The military talks in the US capital came ahead of US-brokered negotiations early next week — the fourth round since the latest Israel-Hezbollah conflict erupted.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported Israeli several strikes in the south, including artillery fire near the mediaeval-era Beaufort castle.

Lebanon’s prime minister accused Israel of pursuing a “scorched-earth policy” in his country’s south, urging a halt to the fighting.

A day after Israeli Prime Minister Ben­jamin Netanyahu said his forces had advanced deeper into Lebanon, his counterpart Nawaf Salam warned the country was facing a “dangerous” escalation, and called for “a swift and real ceasefire”.

In a televised address, Salam accused Israel of “pursuing a scorched-earth policy and collective punishment” by “destroying towns and villages, and forcing their inhabitants into exile”. This will bring “neither security nor stability” to Israel, he said.

Still, he defended his government’s engagement with its southern neighbour, after military delegations from both countries held security talks in Wash­ington on Friday, with more US-brokered negotiations planned next week.

Salam said the outcome of the negotiations was “not guaranteed”, but called them “the least costly path for our country and our people”.

A truce to halt the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah officially took effect on April 17, but has never been observed. Both Israel and Hezbollah accuse each other of violating the ceasefire and justify their attacks by the other’s alleged breaches.

A US statement issued after Friday’s Israel-Lebanon talks made no mention of the truce, but said the “productive military-to-military discussions” would inform next week’s political meeting.

Hezbollah vehemently opposes the direct talks.

Fresh attacks

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported several Israeli attacks in the south on Saturday, and the Lebanese military said two of its soldiers “were seriously wounded… by a hostile Israeli drone” near the southern city of Nabatieh.

The Israeli military issued fresh evacuation warnings covering villages near Nabatieh and others in the east of the country.

Hezbollah said it launched multiple attacks targeting northern Israel, and had also clashed with Israeli soldiers near Ghandouriyeh and Debbine in southern Lebanon, saying it forced them to withdraw.

The Israeli military said that more than 20 rockets and drones were launched from Lebanon on Saturday.

The Lebanese health ministry says that Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,371 people since March 2, when Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war in support of its backer Iran.

Hezbollah said it attacked Israel in retaliation for the death of Iran’s supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes when the war erupted on February 28.

Iran has insisted that any agreement to end the wider Middle East war also cover Lebanon.

Culture Minister Ghassan Salame had warned that Israeli attacks were putting Lebanese heritage sites in “serious danger”.

The Lebanese presidency announced in a statement that President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam had agreed “to intensify contacts to put an end to these condemned Israeli practices” ahead of the new round of talks with Israel scheduled for June 2 and 3.

Aoun and Salam discussed “Israeli attacks and their expansion to a number of southern cities and villages, especially in the districts of Tyre and Nabatieh, in addition to the continued bombing and bulldozing of houses, and the destruction of historical landmarks in the south”.

Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon’s second-in-command, called the latest discussions between Lebanon and Israel’s military delegations “productive”, but made no mention of a ceasefire, a key Lebanese demand.

Lebanon’s military said on Saturday its two soldiers “were seriously wounded as a result of being targeted inside a vehicle by a hostile Israeli drone” near the southern city of Nabatieh.

The Israeli military’s evacuation warnings for Saturday included some villages near Nabatieh and some in the east of the country. Also on Saturday, Hezb­ollah said it fired rockets at the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2026