Israeli Strikes in Lebanon Kill 22 People

Israeli strikes killed 10 more people in southern Lebanon today, Lebanese authorities said, pushing the death toll for the day to at least 22 as violence persisted despite a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

According to the health ministry, six people — “including three children and two women” — were killed in the town of Arab Salim. Another child died in a strike on Harouf, while three more people — “including two children” — were killed in Roumin, all in south Lebanon.

Earlier in the day, the ministry said 12 people had been killed in attacks targeting cars, most of them south of Beirut, even as the truce between Israel and Hezbollah remains in place.

The latest raids, which also struck multiple locations across the south, came a day before a new round of direct Lebanon-Israel negotiations in Washington under US mediation, a step Hezbollah continues to oppose strongly.

Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported that two strikes hit vehicles on the busy highway connecting Beirut with the south, with a third strike landing nearby.

An AFP photographer at one of the sites near Jiyeh saw the charred shell of a car and rescuers carrying away a body.

A fourth strike targeted a car in Sidon, the largest city in southern Lebanon, about 40 kilometres south of Beirut. The health ministry said one person was killed there.

The ministry added that Israeli strikes on three other cars in the Tyre district of south Lebanon killed three more people.

Under the terms of the 17 April ceasefire made public by Washington, Israel retains the right to act against “planned, imminent or ongoing attacks”.

Drone attacks

Since the ceasefire took effect, Israeli attacks have killed more than 400 people in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally based on health ministry data.

Israel’s military said it struck Hezbollah infrastructure, weapons depots and rocket launchers in south Lebanon on Wednesday.

The NNA said several areas in southern Lebanon came under attack, including sites in the Tyre district.

An AFP correspondent reported seeing thick smoke rising from Burj al-Shemali, one of nine areas for which the Israeli military had issued evacuation warnings.

Hezbollah said it had carried out several attacks on Israeli troops who have moved into southern Lebanon, including drone operations, and claimed its fighters had “ambushed” and clashed with Israeli forces in one area.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said it was “increasingly concerned” by the activity of Hezbollah fighters and Israeli soldiers near UN positions in south Lebanon.

That includes “the increased use of drones, which has resulted in explosions in and around our bases and put peacekeepers at risk”, a UNIFIL statement said.

It said several recent incidents involved drones believed to belong to Hezbollah detonating in or near UN positions, including the force’s headquarters in Naqura.

Hezbollah has increasingly relied on cheap fibre-optic drones in attacks on Israeli forces.

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Civil defence funeral

In Sidon, an AFP correspondent saw dozens of mourners gather for the funeral of two Lebanese civil defence workers killed in an Israeli strike the previous day.

Colleagues from the civil defence, carrying Lebanese flags, formed an honour guard as the coffins passed. The caskets were draped in the national flag, with a rescue helmet and flak jacket laid on top.

Earlier this week, Beirut asked Washington to press Israel to stop its strikes ahead of the talks scheduled for Thursday and Friday.

Veteran diplomat Simon Karam will lead the Lebanese delegation at the talks for the first time, as Washington pushes for what it hopes could be a historic breakthrough between the two sides despite continued fighting.

On Tuesday, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem warned that his fighters would make the battlefield “hell” for Israel.

Since Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the broader regional war in early March, authorities say more than 2,800 people have been killed, including at least 200 children.

Hezbollah says that total includes its own fighters.

Israeli troops are operating inside an Israeli-declared “yellow line” that runs about 10 kilometres north of the Israel-Lebanon border.

Gaza envoy says ceasefire holding but ‘far from perfect’

The senior representative for Gaza on US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace said the fragile ceasefire in the Palestinian territory was still in place despite daily breaches.

“We have a ceasefire. It is holding… It is far from perfect. There are violations every day, and some of them are very serious,” Nickolay Mladenov said during a meeting with the Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem.

The ceasefire formally took effect on 10 October, shortly after the second anniversary of the war that began when Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023.

Violence continues to grip Gaza, with Israeli strikes ongoing and both sides accusing each other of violating the truce.

The first phase of the ceasefire included the release of the last hostages seized in October 2023 in exchange for Palestinians held by Israel.

Movement toward a second phase — centred on Hamas disarming and a gradual Israeli military withdrawal from a territory where it still controls more than 50% of the Gaza Strip — has been stalled for weeks, while global attention has shifted to Iran and the Strait of Hormuz.

Mr Mladenov called on Hamas to give up control of the parts of Gaza it governs and surrender its weapons.

“We are asking the political leadership of those who govern Gaza now to step aside. This is required by the Security Council resolution in the 20-point plan,” said the envoy, referring to the US president’s peace plan for the territory.

“We are not asking Hamas to disappear as a political movement. A political party that disavows armed activity can compete in national Palestinian elections,” he said.

“What is not negotiable, however, is that armed factions or militias… can exist alongside a transitional Palestinian authority,” he continued.

He added that those unwilling to disarm would be offered “safe passage to third countries”.

Mr Mladenov also pointed to the sheer scale of devastation in Gaza, saying reconstruction would take years.

“If we look at the tens of millions of tons of rubble that needs to be removed, at the number of people, over a million people, who need some sort of permanent shelter and basic water and sanitation – this is, by any scale, a generation of work for Gaza,” said Mr Mladenov.