Israel said it had targeted Hezbollah operatives and sites in response to a drone attack a day earlier by the Iran-backed group on its troops in the vicinity of a strategic south Lebanon ridge.
It reported no casualties but accused Hezbollah of a “blatant violation”.
Israel this week said it had captured the Nabatieh-area Ali al-Taher ridge, which it considers part of its self-declared “security zone” in south Lebanon.
Hezbollah, which has not claimed any attacks for weeks, has not commented on Israel’s declaration of control over the site.
Aoun said Sunday’s strikes, which damaged government premises and destroyed an out-of-service hospital, were “a dangerous escalation… reaching Lebanese state institutions” and health facilities.
He called on the international community — particularly the United States, which has sponsored direct Israel-Lebanon talks and a framework agreement between the sides in June — “to urgently act to stop these violations”.
Lebanon’s health ministry said two people were killed in strikes on south Lebanon’s Nabatieh al-Fawqa, with two women also killed in nearby Arab Salim.
It said 20 other people including several women and three children were wounded there, as well as in the city of Nabatieh and town of Kfar Rumman.
The ministry later reported that a strike on a parking lot near Nabatieh killed three more people.
The ministry said one of the strikes in Nabatieh al-Fawqa “totally destroyed” the out-of-service Ghandour Hospital, decrying “another grave violation of international humanitarian law”.
Israel’s army said it targeted Hezbollah operatives and infrastructure, including “weapons storage facilities and terrorist structures”, as well as “a Hezbollah command centre that had been established inside a building previously used as a hospital”.
It had earlier issued its first evacuation notice in Lebanon in a month, warning residents near a building it called a Hezbollah facility in Arab Salim to leave ahead of an attack on the site.
It did not issue warnings for other areas where strikes were reported.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said that after the Israeli warning for Arab Salim, “enemy warplanes launched a strike on another house, destroying it” and killing the two women.
It said the Israeli military subsequently carried out a strike on the building threatened in the evacuation warning.
The NNA also reported a strike on a motorcycle in the Nabatieh area, and said that another in the city itself targeted a historical building and damaged offices belonging to finance and agriculture authorities.
Lebanon was drawn into the wider Middle East war in March after Hezbollah attacked Israel in support of its backer Iran.
Israel responded with airstrikes and a ground invasion of Lebanon that Beirut says have killed more than 4,300 people.
Violence has decreased since a US-Iran memorandum of understanding on the broader regional conflict in June and the Israel-Lebanon framework agreement later that month.
Israeli forces are operating inside a self-declared “security zone” around 10 kilometres (six miles) deep inside Lebanon along the border. (AFP)
