BEIRUT: Lebanon’s central bank on Saturday (June 21) condemned a “direct and deliberate” Israeli attack on one of its branches in the southern city of Nabatieh, where Israel has intensified its strikes despite a ceasefire.
“Israeli forces directly targeted a branch of the Bank of Lebanon in Nabatieh,” the bank said in a statement.
It condemned what it called “a deliberate attack against an official building that is inseparable from Lebanese state institutions”.
The building was empty at the time of the strike and sustained only material damage, it added.
The central bank called on the United States and allies “to guarantee the protection of civilians and Lebanese official institutions”.
Hezbollah had pulled Lebanon into the conflict in early March when it fired rockets at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes.
Despite a new ceasefire announcement on Friday as part of the memorandum of understanding signed by Tehran and Washington, Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah have continued to clash in the Nabatieh region.
Lebanese state media on Saturday reported Israeli air raids on around 20 locations, with the country’s civil defence agency saying 16 people were killed in the Nabatieh area, where an AFP photographer saw smoke rising over the city after strikes.
Hezbollah on Saturday said its fighters confronted Israeli forces overnight as they tried to infiltrate towards strategic hills that overlook the southern city of Nabatieh.