Israel and Hezbollah exchange fire as diplomats meet in the United States
Israel has been at war with Hezbollah since the group pulled Lebanon deeper into the wider Middle East conflict by launching attacks on Israel on 2 March in support of Iran.
As shells and diplomacy collided, Israel and Hezbollah traded fire on the ground while Lebanese and Israeli envoys sat down in Washington, where US Secretary of State Marco Rubio cast the militant group as the sole obstacle to a peace agreement.
The latest violence followed US President Donald Trump’s announcement on Monday that he had brokered a deal. The Lebanese embassy in Washington said the arrangement would initially apply only to Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Hezbollah attacks on Israeli territory, before later broadening.
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Israel has been at war with Hezbollah since the group pulled Lebanon deeper into the wider Middle East conflict by launching attacks on Israel on 2 March in support of Iran.
Neither side has publicly endorsed Mr Trump’s proposal. In a written statement to AFP, senior Hezbollah official Mahmud Qomati said the group “will not accept a partial ceasefire”.
A source said four Syrian nationals and two Palestinians were killed in two strikes on the Al-Hawsh area, after Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported two Israeli airstrikes on roads there.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Israeli strikes, some of them fatal, hit about 30 locations across the south yesterday.
Hezbollah, for its part, said it had targeted Israeli troops in occupied southern Lebanese territory, but did not claim any attacks inside Israel.
The Israeli military said it intercepted two projectiles fired from Lebanon and reported no injuries.
Israeli and Lebanese envoys take part in a US-hosted meeting in Washington
The exchange unfolded as Israeli and Lebanese diplomats travelled to the US for a fourth round of direct talks since the current war began.
“Israel and Lebanon can do a peace deal tomorrow,” Mr Rubio told a hearing of the US Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee.
“Israel has no territorial claims in Lebanon. Hezbollah is the impediment,” he added.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam described the talks, fiercely opposed by Hezbollah, as “the least costly choice for Lebanon”.
Mr Rubio said Washington wanted the negotiations to stay separate from talks with Iran aimed at ending the broader Middle East war launched by the US and Israel against Iran on 28 February.
Iran has repeatedly tied the two conflicts together and warned that Israel’s widening campaign in Lebanon could jeopardise the US-Iran ceasefire that has been in place since 8 April.
In recent days, the fighting and bombardment have surged sharply, with Israeli troops mounting their deepest ground offensive into Lebanon in two decades.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Hezbollah was the only ‘impediment’ to a peace deal
Pointing to what he called Hezbollah’s “repeated violations” of a ceasefire officially in force since 17 April, but never honoured by either side, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Axios reported, however, that Mr Trump had pushed Mr Netanyahu to step back, calling him “crazy” in a phone call and accusing him of endangering peace talks with Iran.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz later said Israel had set “a new equation”, with US backing, under which it would strike Beirut’s southern suburbs if Hezbollah kept firing on Israel.
In those southern suburbs, where many residents had fled the previous day, numerous shops stayed shut yesterday as a military drone buzzed low overhead, according to an AFP journalist.
Citing Israel’s actions in Lebanon, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported on Monday that Tehran was suspending peace talks with the US.
Yesterday, Mr Trump rejected that report, saying the US and Iran were in contact “continuously”, including “one day ago and today”.
Shelters overflowing
Near Sidon in southern Lebanon, rescuers pulled the bodies of six members of the same family from the rubble after an Israeli strike.
Smoke billows after an Israeli airstrike in Nabatieh, Lebanon
Farther south, in the historic city of Tyre, Jabal Amel hospital resumed operations after suffering severe damage on Monday.
Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes in the south killed five people yesterday and wounded 48, among them a doctor and five employees of Tebnine Governmental Hospital, which was also damaged.
The Israeli military, meanwhile, issued a statement alleging that Hezbollah members were operating in Tyre’s Christian quarter – an area that until now had been spared evacuation warnings and strikes – and said it would tell residents to leave if the group remained there.
A few thousand people are still in Tyre’s small old city, where the Christian quarter is located.
With shelters already full, displaced residents were left sleeping in cars or tents.
An AFP correspondent said some people began leaving the area after the Israeli military’s statement.
Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli attacks had killed more than 3,465 people since 2 March.
Over the same period, at least 26 Israeli soldiers and one civilian contractor have been killed.
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