A woman was killed and several children were injured in Israel's latest attacks on Lebanon, as the Israeli military said it had hit 40 Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon in the past day.

The Israeli army said on Friday that the renewed air strikes had targeted Hezbollah positions across the south of the country. Hezbollah said it had retaliated with several attacks on Israeli forces operating inside Lebanese territory. Civilians made up the majority of the victims over the past 24 hours, according to Al Jazeera.

The attacks are continuing despite a United States-brokered ceasefire. Forty people have been killed in Israeli air strikes since the truce began, and more than one million people have been displaced by the war on Lebanon.

Villages levelled and a no-go zone

Al Jazeera reporter Zeina Khodr, reporting on Friday, said Israel was increasingly destroying civilian homes, infrastructure and water networks in southern Lebanon, in what she described as a campaign aimed at making the area unliveable. Human rights activists have called the destruction a war crime, and tens of thousands of people in villages along the southern border have been affected.

Israel has shared satellite imagery showing entire neighbourhoods levelled in southern Lebanon. The Israeli army is occupying a zone covering roughly 10 percent of Lebanon's territory, and has created a so-called Yellow Line, south of which is a no-go area because anyone approaching it risks being targeted.

On Thursday, the Israeli military warned residents of eight Lebanese towns outside what it calls the buffer zone to leave their homes immediately before planned strikes. Israel had already issued the same forced evacuation order to 20 villages previously.

Mounir Kabalan, a resident of Mais al Jabal in the southern Marjayoun district whose home was damaged, spoke of his sorrow at the loss of the house where he had memories with his parents and relatives, and of olive trees he had planted with his father and brothers in 2007.

US senators question Washington's role

The escalation has drawn scrutiny in Washington. Twelve Democratic senators have written to Brad Cooper, head of US Central Command, raising questions about the possible US role in Israel's mass evacuation zones in Lebanon, Gaza and Iran. The letter was sent on Monday and made public on Thursday.

The senators said mass displacement orders likely contravene international laws the United States has helped develop around humane warfare. They asked whether forces under Cooper's command had provided refuelling, intelligence or other assistance for the imposition of evacuation zones, and whether any intelligence sharing could be used to support their creation, enforcement or targeting.

Signatories include Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen and Peter Welch, as well as Chris Coons, a centrist and staunch supporter of Israel. On Thursday, Sanders said the regional war was not only about Lebanon, and quoted Israel's defence minister as saying the fate of southern Lebanon would be the same as that of Gaza. Sanders said 2,702 people had been killed in Lebanon, 1.6 million displaced and dozens of villages destroyed, and called for no more US military aid to Israel's prime minister.

Separately, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has introduced a War Powers resolution in the House of Representatives to end any US involvement in the Israeli assault on Lebanon.

Talks continue as divisions grow in Beirut

President Donald Trump has been brokering direct talks between Lebanon and Israel, with another round of negotiations set for Washington next week. On Thursday, the US embassy in Beirut said Lebanon was at a crossroads and its people had an opportunity to reclaim their country through peace talks with Israel.

Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun and parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri are reported to be divided on how to approach negotiations to end the war with Israel. Since the start of Israel's war on Gaza in October 2023, Washington has provided its Middle East ally with more than 21 billion dollars in direct military assistance, according to Al Jazeera.

Further reporting on the continuing strikes, citing Lebanon's National News Agency, recorded at least 28 people killed in southern Lebanon, including members of two families, two Lebanese army soldiers and three paramedics, in the latest wave of attacks. Israel's military said one of its soldiers from the Golani Brigade was killed in southern Lebanon. The Lebanese health ministry puts the toll since hostilities began on 2 March at more than 2,500 killed and more than 8,000 wounded.