Israel escalates strikes in Lebanon as Netanyahu vows to ‘crush’ Hezbollah

The Israeli army has intensified strikes in southern Lebanon, as prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the military to escalate its offensive in an effort to “crush” Hezbollah in a further erosion of an already fragmented ceasefire.In turn, Hezbollah said it staged several attacks on Monday on three barracks and a military post in northern Israel “in response to the violation of the ceasefire” by Israel.The intensifying conflict comes amid waning hopes for an imminent deal between the US and Iran, with Tehran pointing to the confusion in US positions and Israeli interference as key factors in why a complete agreement is proving difficult to secure.Speaking at the weekly foreign ministry press briefing, Esmail Baghaei, the spokesperson for Iran’s negotiating team, also said future management of the Strait of Hormuz was a matter for Oman and Iran to reach agreement on, and that it was not tolls that were being proposed but “fees for navigational services”.In the early hours of Tuesday, Iran-backed Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a series of attacks in northern Israel: at least four drone attacks on Shomera barracks, attacks on two barracks in other towns in the region, and another on a military post in Misgav Am, carried out around midday at short intervals.Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah erupted on 2 March. Despite a ceasefire that came into effect on 17 April, both sides have continued to exchange fire on a near-daily basis.“I have ordered an even greater acceleration of our operations,” Netanyahu said in a video statement posted on his Telegram channel. “It is true that they are attacking us with drones, including fibre-optic drones, but we have teams working on countermeasures and we will solve this issue … We will intensify our blows, increase our firepower, and we will crush them.”Following the call for escalation, an Agence France-Presse correspondent saw residents fleeing the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold.The Israeli air force carried out successive strikes in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon on Monday evening, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA).Dozens of Israeli strikes earlier targeted several towns and villages in southern Lebanon in the early hours, killing three people in two cars and on a motorcycle, NNA reported.Israeli airstrikes then targeted several towns near the ancient city of Tyre, according to the state-run agency. Those strikes came after Israel issued evacuation orders for 10 villages, accusing Hezbollah of breaching the truce.Hezbollah has regularly launched drone attacks against Israeli forces inside Lebanese territory and across the border, including several on Monday.According to Lebanese authorities, Israeli strikes since early March have killed more than 3,100 people.The Israeli military also announced on Monday that a soldier had been killed the previous day in southern Lebanon. That brings the number of Israeli soldiers killed since the outbreak of hostilities with Hezbollah to 23. One civilian contractor has also been killed.Two far-right ministers called for an expansion of Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon. “There is an urgent need to put an end to the threat posed by Hezbollah’s explosive drones,” the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, who lives in an occupied West Bank settlement, said on Telegram.The national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, called for a “return to intensive warfare” and for “taking control” of further territory.With Agence France-Presse