Lebanon said Israeli strikes in the south killed 11 people, including three children, on Saturday, the deadliest raids since deals in June eased hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.

Lebanese leaders condemned the strikes, which Israel’s military said were in retaliation for an attack by the Iran-backed militant group, with one targeting a Hezbollah commander it accused of using his family as “human shields”.

The strikes came as Israel and Lebanon were set to hold an eighth round of US-sponsored direct negotiations early next month in Rome.

The two sides had agreed a framework deal at talks in Washington in June, but Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said that Saturday’s “violations are a clear message on the negotiations process and American efforts aiming to implement this agreement”.

A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, said the latest strikes “should jumpstart the talks and make them much more serious, not do the opposite”.

Hezbollah said the attacks “will be met with an appropriate response”, urging Lebanese authorities to abandon “the humiliating path of direct negotiations”.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported an airstrike on a home in the village of Ansar and a “series of airstrikes targeting the Ali al-Taher ridge”, a strategic hill overlooking the Nabatieh area.

It later reported another strike on the southern town of Deir Zahrani.

Lebanon’s health ministry said seven people were killed “including three children and two women” in Ansar, where Aoun said “an entire family” had been killed.

Israel’s military said the Ansar attack had killed a commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, Ali Samir Al-Haj Hassan, acknowledging reports that Hassan’s family was present and maintaining they “were not the target of the strike”.

The health ministry said four other people were killed and 17 wounded, including a child and 11 women, in Deir Zahrani.

‘No justification’

In Ansar, an AFP correspondent saw a destroyed building as rescuers combed the rubble, and a swimming pool clouded and grey from dust and debris.

Abbas Khalil, 60, said he was praying when the strike hit.

“We were shocked… There’s no justification for this,” he told AFP.

Standing next to the murky swimming pool, Mohammed Saab said he waited every year to rent his property out over the summer.

“What do I have here for this to happen?” he said in dismay.

The Israeli army said it struck “Hezbollah terror infrastructure”, later adding that the group had attacked soldiers inside a so-called “security zone” – a strip of territory around 10 kilometres (six miles) deep inside Lebanon where Israeli forces are operating.

Three Israeli soldiers were seriously wounded, according to Netanyahu’s office.

In Deir Zahrani, an AFP correspondent saw significant damage and heavy traffic towards the city of Sidon as some people headed north in cars packed with belongings.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said that “the women and children who were killed (in Ansar) are not military targets”, urging Israel to halt the “extremely dangerous” escalation.

The Israeli military, however, insisted that Hassan had been a “lawful target”, and accused him of having “used his family as human shields”.

Parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally, said the attacks were a call “to the sponsors of the negotiations and the ceasefire agreements to bear their responsibility… before it’s too late”.

The framework Israel-Lebanon deal calls for the disarmament of Hezbollah, a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from south Lebanon and the deployment of the Lebanese army to the region, starting in “pilot zones”.

Netanyahu spokesman Doron Spielman told AFP that Israel stood by the agreement, and voiced hope the Lebanese military would step up “and together we’re going to remove Hezbollah from the picture”.

Hezbollah has repeatedly rejected the deal and opposes the ongoing talks.

Negotiations

The group said that the new attacks reflected a desire by Netanyahu “to escalate the war to strengthen his domestic political position”, with the Israeli leader running for re-election later this year.

Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war in March with rocket fire at Israel in support of its backer Iran.

Israel responded with a heavy air campaign and ground invasion that Lebanese authorities say have killed more than 4,300 people.

Violence has dropped since a US-Iran memorandum of understanding on the broader Middle East war in June and the Israel-Lebanon deal later that month.

But Lebanon still reports intermittent Israeli strikes and broad demolitions of civilian buildings in southern villages and towns.

This week, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz vowed to keep troops in the “security zone”.

But a US State Department official said “a permanent military presence in south Lebanon is not consistent with the commitments made in the framework”.