����ֱ��

BEIRUT: Lebanon said an Israeli strike in the country’s south on Thursday killed one person, the latest raid despite a ceasefire with militant group Hezbollah.
Israel has continued to carry out attacks on Lebanon, usually saying it is targeting Hezbollah operatives or sites, despite a November truce that sought to end more than a year of hostilities including two months of open war with the Iran-backed group.
“An Israeli enemy drone strike targeted a motorcycle on the Ain Baal-Bazuriyeh road, killing one person,” the health ministry said in a statement, referring to an area in south Lebanon’s Tyre district.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported additional Israeli strikes on the Zrariyeh are in south Lebanon’s Sidon district and in the Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border, with no immediate word on casualties.
The Israeli army said it struck Hezbollah “terror infrastructure at a site used for the production and storage of strategic weapons” in the Bekaa, and other Hezbollah infrastructure in Zrariyeh.
The raids followed a Tuesday strike south of Beirut that wounded a Hezbollah member, according to a security source, and Monday strikes in eastern Lebanon that killed five people. Israel said it targeted Hezbollah sites.
Under heavy US pressure and fears of expanded Israeli strikes, the Lebanese government last month ordered the military to draw up a plan to disarm the once-dominant Hezbollah, and last week said the army would begin the plan’s implementation.
Thursday’s raids came as French envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian visited Lebanon for talks with senior officials including President Joseph Aoun and parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally.
France is part of a committee supervising the ceasefire that also includes the United States, Lebanon, Israel and United Nations peacekeepers.
Aoun told Le Drian that “any French or American pressure on Israel to respond to the will of the international community in ceasing hostilities against Lebanon will help complete the security plan proposed by the army and welcomed by the cabinet,” the presidency said.

DAMASCUS: Syria said Thursday that its forces dismantled a cell affiliated with Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group, a key ally of ousted president Bashar Assad.
“Specialized units in cooperation with the general intelligence service... were able to arrest a terrorist cell belonging to the Hezbollah militia that was active” in the Damascus countryside, an interior ministry statement said, quoting a local commander.
“Preliminary investigations showed that the cell members underwent training in military camps in Lebanese territory, and were planning to carry out operations inside Syrian territory that threaten national security and stability,” the statement said.
Forces seized ammunition and weapons including Grad-type rockets, launchers and anti-tank missiles, it said, adding the case was referred to the judiciary.
Hezbollah fighters helped Assad claw back territory during Syria’s civil war, which erupted in 2011 after the repression of anti-government protests.
The Iran-backed group openly backed Assad from 2013 until his ouster last December by an Islamist-led alliance.
Hezbollah, heavily weakened in a recent war with Israel, lost a key supply route from backer Iran through Syria after the new authorities took power.
In March, Lebanon and Syria signed an agreement to address border security threats after clashes left 10 dead.
This week, the office of Lebanese Justice Minister Adel Nassar said two specialized committees had held their first meeting in Damascus to discuss security and judicial matters.