• Israeli attacks kill 12 people in Tyre and Nabatieh
• Iran reiterates support for Hezbollah
• Lebanese president accuses Tehran of treating his country as bargaining chip in deal with US

BEIRUT: Israeli air strikes intensified across southern Lebanon on Friday, killing seven people in the historic city of Tyre and five in Zebdine, Nabatieh district, prompting new evacuation warnings, as Iran reaffirmed support for Hezbollah and the United Nations more than doubled its aid appeal for the war-torn country.

The strikes followed warnings of imminent attacks against Hezbollah, coming after the group rejected a US-brokered truce. Lebanon was drawn into the wider Middle East war when Hezbollah attacked Israel on March 2 to avenge the Feb 28 assassination of Iran’s supreme leader.

A strike on Thursday had badly wounded Mona Khalil, a prominent environmental activist in her seventies, a medical source said. She had been holding out in her home in Mansouri near Tyre, near coastline that serves as a nesting site for endangered sea turtles.

One strike near Tyre’s Jabal Amel hospital killed four people, wounded seven and lightly damaged the facility. Another in a residential area killed three and wounded five, including two children. An AFP correspondent saw a bank heavily damaged near the hospital.

The dead in Nabatieh included a woman and an emergency worker.

“The Israeli enemy strike on the town of Zebdine in the Nabatieh district killed five people, including a woman and a paramedic from the Risala Association, and wounded two people including a paramedic,” a ministry statement said.

Later on Friday, the Israeli military issued new evacuation warnings for nine southern Lebanese towns and villages, with Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reporting people fleeing. Following orders to leave most of Tyre, many sought shelter in the Old City. With shelters full, displaced people slept in cars or tents.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the army will continue ground operations. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said on Thursday that Israeli strikes have killed at least 3,526 people since the war began.

Three months into the war, the UN on Friday more than doubled its aid appeal for Lebanon, saying nearly $640 million is needed over six months to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe.

“Communities across Lebanon have faced an appalling situation due to the escalation of hostilities,” Imran Riza, the UN’s resident humanitarian coordinator for Lebanon, told reporters in Geneva. “We have witnessed too many casualties, widespread and repeated displacement, destruction of housing and basic service infrastructure, and far-reaching psychological trauma.”

Meanwhile, Iran reaffirmed support for Hezbollah and demanded that Israel withdraw from southern Lebanon, underscoring complications facing an interim deal to end the broader conflict between the US and Iran.

Tehran has made a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah a condition for any peace deal with Washington.

“This war will end only when it ends in Lebanon as well,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told Lebanese TV station Al Mayadeen late on Thursday.

The comments came after Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem rejected a US-brokered pact, demanding a comprehensive ceasefire without the Israeli enemy having the freedom to kill.

However, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Friday accused Iran of using Lebanon as a “bargaining chip” in negotiations with the US, delivering some of his toughest criticism yet of Tehran.

In a CNN interview, Aoun said “the people of Lebanon are paying the price … for the sake” of Iran’s interests, adding they were fed up with the war.

“They are using Lebanon as a bargaining chip in their negotiation with the United States,” Aoun said. “It’s unacceptable.”

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2026