At least six people have been killed and eight wounded in Israeli air strikes across Lebanon as Beirut began preparations to deploy troops in southern "pilot zones" under a renewed ceasefire agreement.
The National News Agency NNA reported on Thursday that Israeli strikes on the town of Sohmor in the western Bekaa region killed five civilians, while four others were wounded.
Following the attacks, the municipality of Sohmor urged residents and visitors not to enter the town due to “serious security risks.”
“The (Israeli) enemy is sparing no one, including civilian men and women,” the municipality said in a statement carried by NNA, calling for full compliance with the warning.
In southern Lebanon, an Israeli drone targeted a motorcycle in the town of Maaroub in the Tyre district, killing one person and injuring another, according to NNA.
The agency also said a civilian vehicle was struck on the Zefta-Nmeiriyeh road in the Marjayoun district, wounding a father, mother and their daughter from Jdeidet Marjayoun.
In a separate attack, an Israeli drone hit a vehicle on the Zefta-Kfarroumane road in Nabatieh, causing injuries, according to NNA.
Deployment in ‘pilot zones’
The strikes came a day after Lebanon and Israel renewed their fragile ceasefire and agreed to establish "pilot zones" under exclusive Lebanese army control. The US-mediated agreement followed weeks of Israeli strikes that have killed nearly 3,500 people in Lebanon since March, despite the ceasefire.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said that the army would begin deploying in "pilot zones" in the country's south.
"The next step is practical and tangible: the deployment of the Lebanese army in pilot zones as a first phase," Salam said, according to remarks read out by Information Minister Paul Morcos after a cabinet meeting, adding that "this does not prejudice our right to a full (Israeli) withdrawal, but brings us closer to it".
According to a joint statement released after the Washington talks that Hezbollah has rejected, Israel and Lebanon agreed to create "pilot zones" in south Lebanon where the Lebanese army forces "will take exclusive control of the territory to the exclusion of all non-state actors."
