Hezbollah warns Lebanon over Israeli “environmental genocide” in south – Shafaq News

Shafaq News-
Beirut

Hezbollah on
Sunday urged Lebanese people across all communities to recognize the risks
posed by the authorities’ continued pursuit of concessions and “humiliating
negotiations” with Israel, while denouncing Israeli territorial ambitions and
“environmental genocide” in the country’s south, three days after the latest
round of direct Lebanese-Israeli talks concluded in Rome.

According to
the group, a map published by the Israeli Foreign Ministry depicted occupied
parts of southern Lebanon as Israeli territory, which it presented as evidence
of Israeli ambitions over Lebanese land and resources, arguing that Tel Aviv’s
ambitions extended beyond the south to Lebanon as a whole.

The party
called on the authorities to halt direct negotiations, convene an emergency
meeting of the Higher Defense Council, and file an urgent complaint with the UN
Security Council. It further appealed for a unified national position in
defense of Lebanon’s sovereignty and rights to its land and resources.

In another
statement, the group charged that Israeli forces were deliberately setting fire
to forested areas in southern Lebanon, leaving them burned and “uninhabitable,”
alongside the destruction of infrastructure and removal of old olive trees, pressing
the government, Environment Ministry, and other relevant bodies to act to stop the
“Israeli brutality against the environment, after people and infrastructure.”

Read more: “Attack on Identity”: Israel damages 55 historic towns in Lebanon

Lebanon and
Israel concluded a third day of US-sponsored negotiations in Rome on Thursday,
exchanging preliminary lists of detainees and missing persons without reaching
a final agreement on key territorial issues. Beirut sought the swift release of
an initial group of civilian detainees and received a US pledge to provide
answers regarding a ceasefire, while the Israeli delegation presented names of
Lebanese Jews recorded as missing or killed. A further round is tentatively
scheduled for September 1.

Lebanon’s
Health Ministry placed the cumulative toll from the Israeli war between March 2
and August 7 at 4,335 dead and 12,273 wounded, including women and children.

Israeli Attacks
Continue in Southern Lebanon

Lebanese
media reported Israeli military activity across southern Lebanon, including a
tank entering Hadatha and setting homes on fire. Artillery fire hit Bani Hayyan
in the Marjayoun district and intermittently targeted the area between
Mayfadoun and Zawtar Al-Sharqiyah, where Israeli forces also carried out a
large explosion. Israeli drones were reported flying at low altitude over Tyre.

Lebanese
Army units, meanwhile, dismantled unexploded missiles and aerial bombs left
from Israeli attacks in five villages, before transferring the munitions to a
secure location for disposal.

عملت وحدات مختصة من الجيش على تفكيك صواريخ وقنابل طيران غير منفجرة من مخلفات العدوان الإسرائيلي في بلدات: دبين – مرجعيون، زوطر الغربية وحومين الفوقا وزبدين والدوير – النبطية، ونقلتها إلى موقع آمن لإجراء اللازم بشأنها، حفاظًا على سلامة المواطنين.تشدد قيادة الجيش على ضرورة اتخاذ… pic.twitter.com/uSbNjX0hrW

— الجيش اللبناني (@LebarmyOfficial) August 9, 2026

For its
part, the Israeli military announced that its troops had uncovered and
destroyed an underground shaft over the past week. It identified the site as a
Hezbollah weapons-storage facility and listed Kalashnikov rifles, anti-tank
missiles and launchers, artillery weapons, and RPGs among the weapons found.

مشاهد من تدمير فتحة تحت أرضية تابعة لمنظمة حزب الله الإرهابية: نشاط قوات فريق القتال اللوائي 55 في المنطقة الأمنية🔸تعمل قوات فريق القتال اللوائي 55 وقوات وحدة يهلوم، تحت قيادة الفرقة 91، في المنطقة الأمنية في جنوب لبنان، لإزالة التهديدات عن دولة إسرائيل.🔸خلال الأسبوع… pic.twitter.com/aV7uLXluf6

— Lieutenant Colonel Ella Waweya | إيلا واوية (@CaptainElla1) August 9, 2026