Lebanon’s president visits south after Israel blows up strategic Hezbollah site

Lebanese president Joseph Aoun visited the country’s south on Saturday, in a surprise trip to a city close to a strategic Hezbollah position recently captured and blown up by Israel.

Official Lebanese media said he arrived in the city of Nabatieh unannounced and accompanied by security officials.

His visit comes a day after a senior US diplomatic official said a new round of US-brokered talks between Israel and Lebanon, initially scheduled for next week, had been pushed back to October.

Aoun expressed solidarity with locals in Nabatieh who greeted him on Saturday, according to footage broadcast by Lebanese media.

He praised staff at Nabatieh Governmental Hospital, saying they were risking their lives to provide medical services in the area, which most people have fled.

Fighting between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah had eased off between late June and last week, thanks to a US-sponsored framework agreement between the two countries as well as a memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran in the wider Middle East war.

But the Israeli army has in recent days stepped up attacks again, particularly in the Nabatieh region.

On Thursday it blew up underground fortifications on the strategic Ali al-Taher ridge after seizing the site, which lies a few kilometres from Nabatieh city.

The explosion was large enough to trigger a tremor detected by seismic monitoring agencies.

Israeli strikes in the area have killed at least 29 people in the last few days, including 12 members of the same family.

The Lebanese army, which has deployed in Nabatieh city, warned on Wednesday that Israel’s actions threatened the implementation of the framework agreement.

The agreement involves the disarmament of Hezbollah, a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon’s south and the deployment of the Lebanese army to the region, starting in test areas known as “pilot zones”.