Israeli military strikes southern Lebanon after evacuation warning to village

Aug 5 - The Israeli military said it had begun targeted strikes in southern Lebanon on Wednesday in response to a "Hezbollah violation", a day after the latest round of U.S.-facilitated talks between Israel and Lebanon took place in Rome.

The Israeli military had said in an earlier statement it had issued an evacuation warning to the southern Lebanese village of Mansouri, saying it would act against the Iran-backed group in the area.

It was the first online warning by the military for Lebanon in more than a month.

It dropped flyers on the village in late June telling residents to leave as Israel had added Mansouri to a self-declared buffer zone in southern Lebanon, a senior Lebanese military official told Reuters at the time.

Some Lebanese farmers had been continuing to access their fields and homes in the towns despite Israeli forces operating nearby.

On June 26, Lebanon and Israel agreed to a U.S.-brokered security arrangement intended to ease hostilities along the border, but Israel said it would maintain a security zone in southern Lebanon to eliminate the threat of Hezbollah. REUTERS