At least 11 people, including three children and two women, were killed and 19 others were wounded in Israeli strikes that targeted different areas of southern Lebanon on Saturday, August 15.

The massacre constitutes the deadliest Israeli aggression on the Arab country since the conditional US-mediated ceasefire between the Lebanese state and the Israeli government was reached in early June.

The truce agreement was, however, rejected by the Lebanese Resistance group Hezbollah, which considered it a prelude to the “Greater Israel” project.

Saturday’s lethal strikes were carried out after Israel had already violated Lebanese airspace by drones, helicopters, and fighter aircrafts over 1,700 times between June and August, according to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

UNIFIL also reported more than 100 Israeli airstrikes, as well as 1,800 projectiles, fired by Israeli forces on multiple locations in southern Lebanon over the same period. Nevertheless, it confirmed that no projectiles were fired by Hezbollah.

**Hezbollah vows “**an appropriate response” to the massacre

Hezbollah issued a statement on Saturday, denouncing Israel’s “brutal massacres against civilians.” The group further warned that “continued attacks and violations of Lebanese sovereignty would be met with an appropriate response.”

It also accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of escalating the aggression on Lebanon “to bolster his domestic political standing, advance his electoral interests, and appease the far right.”

Hezbollah held the United States responsible for the escalation for providing Israel with political and military support and cover.

Moreover, the group urged the Lebanese state to pursue all available options to stop Israeli strikes, instead of continuing the “humiliating” direct talks and offering Israel unearned concessions.

Lebanese president: Lebanon does not want to backtrack on the ceasefire agreement with Israel

While expected to strongly condemn the aggression on his country and halt the US-mediated talks with Israel until Israel stops its attacks, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun once again chose to comply with the dictates of the Trump administration.

Speaking to the American Task Force on Lebanon (ATFL) on Tuesday, August 18, Aoun confirmed that his administration is unwilling to backtrack on the ceasefire framework agreement with Israel.

The Lebanese President asserted that Beirut is rather looking forward to strengthening the framework and achieving “a breakthrough on several issues, such as the captives’ file, the border, the pilot zones, and the ceasefire.”

Aoun is selling out Lebanon to a settler colony, says Rania Khalek

Lebanese-American journalist Rania Khalek argued that the fact that Aoun is continuing to entertain sham negotiations with “the Israeli enemy” that continues to commit all these crimes, such as occupying Lebanon, refusing to leave, destroying housing, and murdering Lebanese citizens, makes him a traitor to his people.

“He is selling out Lebanon to a settler colony. That is openly telling us they want to ethnically cleanse the south, so that nobody can ever live there again, and so that they can ultimately take over,” Khalek said, referring to Aoun.

“So increasingly Joseph Aoun is seen as treacherous by a huge segment of the population. His government has very little support, its popularity is scattering and that is how he is going down in history,” she added.

Read more:‘Lebanon’s gov’t just declared war on its own people’

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