BEIRUT, Lebanon — Israel carried out air strikes on three towns in southern Lebanon on Thursday shortly after warning people to flee, Lebanese state media and the Israeli military said.

 

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported several strikes on Mais Al Jabal, a border town ravaged by the last war, as well as Debbin and Kfar Tibnit.

 

The NNA said roads from Kfar Tibnit were full of people who had left their homes ahead of the attacks.

 

The Israeli military said it was "conducting strikes on Hizbollah military targets in southern Lebanon".

 

Israel has kept up its strikes on southern Lebanon despite a truce signed in November that ended more than a year of hostilities and two months of open war with Hizbollah.

 

It has also maintained troops in five locations in the south of Lebanon it deems strategic.

 

The Israeli military had urged residents of various areas of southern Lebanon to evacuate, saying it would strike Hizbollah targets.

 

It published maps of four buildings in three different villages in southern Lebanon, calling on residents of the buildings and adjacent constructions to evacuate "immediately" and "stay at least 500 metres away".

 

The latest Israeli strikes came a day after Hezbollah commemorated a year since Israel blew up hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies used by its members, killing dozens and wounding thousands.

 

That attack happened almost one year into cross-border fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese group that was sparked by the Gaza war between Israel and Hizbollah's Palestinian ally Hamas.

 

Ahead of Thursday's strikes, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam had called for "maximum pressure" on Israel to stop its attacks on his country.

 

Under US pressure, Beirut has ordered the Lebanese army to draw up a plan to disarm Hizbollah in areas near the Israeli border by the end of the year.

 

Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi said last week that Lebanon's army would fully disarm the Iran-backed group near the border within three months.

 

Hizbollah, who rejected Beirut's plan, is currently preparing to commemorate the death of its leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs in late September 2024.