Israeli strikes on south Lebanon killed at least 15 people, the health ministry said on Thursday, as the country’s president decried what he described as ongoing Israeli violations of a nearly two-week ceasefire.

The Lebanese army said another strike on a home in Kfar Rumman had also killed one of its soldiers and “several members of his family”, though the health ministry had yet to include it in its toll.

Israel has pressed its attacks on Lebanon as the fragile ceasefire, announced after a round of direct talks between the two countries’ ambassadors in Washington, neared its two-week mark.

The health ministry said Israeli strikes on four south Lebanon locations killed a total of 15 people, including at least five women and two children.

The state-run National News Agency (NNA) said one of the strikes killed four people from the same family, while another killed six people who were gathered near their village’s cemetery.

Israel’s army also said Thursday that one of its soldiers had been killed in south Lebanon.

President Joseph Aoun had earlier slammed “continuing Israeli violations” in south Lebanon.

Speaking to a delegation from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, he said these were occurring “despite the ceasefire, as do demolitions of homes and places of worship, while the number of killed and wounded rises day after day”.

Shortly after the ceasefire began on April 17, Israel declared a so-called “Yellow Line” demarcating a strip of Lebanese territory about 10 kilometres (six miles) deep along the border, where it has been operating and demolishing villages.

“Pressure must be exerted on Israel to ensure it respects international laws and conventions and ceases targeting civilians, paramedics, civil defence, and humanitarian health and relief organisations,” Aoun told the delegation, on a day when three paramedics killed by Israel were buried.

‘Will not surrender’

The NNA reported a series of Israeli airstrikes across southern Lebanon on Thursday, while an Israeli army spokesperson called for the evacuation of more than 20 southern villages.

Iran-backed Hezbollah claimed several attacks on Israeli army targets in south Lebanon, including tanks and soldiers.

In Beirut, dozens of southern Lebanon residents and local officials gathered to protest Israel’s destruction of their villages, which has been ongoing despite the ceasefire.

One of the demonstrators, Hanaa Ibrahim, 48, from the border village of Ainata, told AFP that “we will not surrender and will not normalise” relations with Israel.

“We will not accept shaking hands with them. We will continue until the last drop of blood,” she said.

The text of the ceasefire, published by the US State Department, grants Israel the right to act against “planned, imminent or ongoing attacks”.

Hezbollah rejects that language, saying it was never presented to Lebanon’s cabinet, in which members of the group are represented.

On Wednesday, Aoun had said that “this wording appeared in a statement issued by the US State Department, and it is the same text that was adopted in November 2024” as part of the ceasefire agreement ending the last war between the two sides.

He added that “all parties” at the time had agreed to the text.

In response, parliament speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah, said in a statement on Wednesday that Aoun’s remarks were “inaccurate, to say the least, and this also applies to the November 2024 agreement”.