BEIRUT, April 5 — Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, has said Israeli air strikes have turned southern Lebanon into a "devastated agricultural area”.

Israel and the Iranian-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah have been trading fire across Israel’s northern border since war erupted in Gaza, with Hezbollah firing rockets and Israel launching air strikes and artillery shells.

The Israeli strikes have burned tens of thousands of olive trees and torched farmland across southern Lebanon, hurting herders and farmers already suffering from a deep economic crisis that has made it even more important for Lebanon to produce its own food.

"Eight hundred hectares have been completely damaged, 340,000 heads of livestock have died, and about 75 per cent of farmers have lost their final source of income,” Lebanon’s National News Agency quoted Mikati as saying.

"This problem will extend to the coming years.”

Agriculture Minister Abbas Hajj Hassan sounded the alarm last month, saying the Israeli strikes were preventing farmers in villages and towns near the border reaching their fields, affecting up to 30 per cent of Lebanon’s agricultural output. — Reuters