War in the Middle East: Clashes between Hezbollah and the Israeli army in Lebanon, at least 19 dead in strikes.

Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon have killed 19 people on Tuesday, the Ministry of Health announced, while Hezbollah reported clashes with Israeli soldiers despite a ceasefire in effect. “An Israeli airstrike on the town of Deir Qanoune al-Nahr, in the district of Tyre, resulted in an initial toll of 10 martyrs including three children and three women, as well as three wounded including a child,” the ministry said in a statement, describing the attack as a “massacre.” A woman was among the nine people killed in other airstrikes across the south, which left 29 injured including six women and a child.

A strike on Maachouq, north of Tyre, caused the collapse of the last two floors of a building and damaged nearby buildings as well as several parked cars nearby. A strike on the same location on Monday had destroyed a health care center run by Hezbollah-affiliated rescuers, the Ministry of Health stated on Tuesday. According to the official Lebanese National News Agency (Ani), a strike extensively destroyed a neighborhood in Nabatiyeh housing shops, an old mosque, and traditional residences.

The Israeli army had previously called on residents of 12 Lebanese localities to evacuate, including 11 in the south of the country and one in the Bekaa region (east). It later renewed the same warning. In a separate statement, the army announced it had intercepted a drone that had crossed the border from Lebanon.

Clashes in the South Meanwhile, Hezbollah claimed to have carried out multiple attacks against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, as well as against Iron Dome batteries (part of the Israeli air defense system) in northern Israel. The group also claimed several attacks against Israeli forces in border areas in the south.

Lebanon’s Civil Defense announced on Tuesday that they had lost contact with seven Lebanese individuals after an Israeli patrol incursion on the outskirts in the Hasbaya region. The Israeli army later released four of them, with the remaining three still considered “captives of the Israeli enemy,” according to the Civil Defense.

Israel and Hezbollah continue their clashes despite the ceasefire, and the Israeli army has already conducted strikes beyond the “blue line” that delineates a zone around ten kilometers deep in southern Lebanon where Israeli soldiers carry out operations claiming to protect the population of northern Israel from the gunfire of the pro-Iranian movement. Since the start of the war, Israeli strikes have claimed the lives of over 3,000 people in Lebanon, according to Lebanese authorities. On the Israeli side, 20 soldiers and a contractor working for the army have been killed in Lebanon since the start of the war on March 2.