Lebanese president Joseph Aoun on Saturday condemned overnight Israeli strikes on civilian sites, which were reported to have killed at least one person and destroyed hundreds of vehicles.
鈥極nce again, southern Lebanon has been the target of a heinous Israeli aggression against civilian installations鈥攚ithout justification or pretext,鈥� Aoun said.
鈥楾he seriousness of this latest attack lies in the fact that it comes after the ceasefire agreement in Gaza,鈥� he added, questioning whether Israel now sought to expand its attacks on Lebanon.
The health ministry said one person was killed and seven wounded in the strike on the Al-Msayleh area.
The official National News Agency reported that Israeli warplanes carried out 10 raids targeting bulldozer and excavator yards, destroying more than 300 vehicles.
An AFP photographer at the scene witnessed massive destruction to the showrooms, with dozens of heavy machinery vehicles burned and firefighters extinguished the blazes.
鈥榃e woke up terrified by the sound of bombing,鈥� an elderly woman who asked to remain anonymous told AFP, adding that 鈥榳e saw death with our own eyes鈥�.
Msayleh, located over 40 kilometres north of the border with Israel, is where parliament speaker and Hezbollah ally Nabih Berri鈥檚 home in southern Lebanon is located.
The Israeli army confirmed it conducted strikes in Lebanon.
In a statement, it said it had 鈥榮truck and dismantled Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure in the area of southern Lebanon, where engineering machinery used to re-establish terrorist infrastructure in the area鈥� was located.
Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon despite a November ceasefire, which followed more than a year of hostilities with the militant group that culminated in two months of open war.
Its latest attack comes a day after a ceasefire took effect between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip.
But in Lebanon there are fears of intensified Israeli attacks on Hezbollah, the Iran-backed movement that is refusing to surrender its weapons to the state.
In October 2023, Hezbollah began launching rockets at Israel in support of Hamas in the Gaza war. Months of exchanges escalated into all-out war in September 2024, before a ceasefire was agreed two months later.