AN ISRAELI airstrike on a village in eastern Lebanon killed 12 people, the country’s state-run National News Agency has said.
The strike late on Monday in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley area came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he had authorised more intensive strikes across Lebanon.
The Israeli military did not comment on the strike, but claimed on Monday that it was targeting Hezbollah infrastructure in eastern Lebanon.
Rescue workers said that a dozen bodies had been pulled out of the rubble following an intense wave of overnight strikes targeting swaths of southern and eastern Lebanon.
The intensified attacks come three days before Lebanese and Israeli military delegations are set to meet in Washington for direct talks.
The Lebanese government hopes that the direct talks with Israel, opposed by Hezbollah, will lead to a ceasefire.
More than one million people in Lebanon have been displaced in the war, which was sparked by Hezbollah firing rockets into northern Israel on March 2 in solidarity with Iran.
Meanwhile, the US military said on Monday that it carried out “self-defence” strikes in southern Iran, including on missile launch sites and boats placing mines.
US Central Command spokesman Captain Tim Hawkins said the strikes were done “to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces”, but that it was “using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire”.
There was no official response from Iran, which had sent its parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf to Qatar for negotiations over the possible deal with the US.
The news website Tabnak, believed to be close to former Revolutionary Guard chief Mohsen Rezaei, identified four dead Guard troops it said had been killed in American strikes on boats. Iranian state television reported blasts around Bandar Abbas, a city on the Strait of Hormuz, which is home to a military port and a dual-use airport.
President Donald Trump said on Monday that any agreement to end the Iran war should include a requirement for several additional countries, including Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, to join the Abraham Accords, the US-brokered agreements from his first term aimed at normalising relations with Israel.
Trump said in a social media post that negotiations are “proceeding nicely”, but tied any eventual agreement to expanded participation in the 2020 accords.
The proposal came as the emerging Iran deal faced criticism from fellow Republicans who favour a harder line on Iran.
Trump pointed to Saudi Arabia and Qatar as countries that should “immediately” sign on, alongside Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt and Jordan. Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates became the first countries to join in 2020.
He wrote that “after all the work done by the United States to try and pull this very complex puzzle together, it should be mandatory that all of these Countries, at a minimum, simultaneously, sign onto the Abraham Accords”.
The president has long hoped Saudi Arabia would join, but the kingdom has maintained that any normalisation deal requires first establishing a clear path for Palestinian statehood.
That is also key for Pakistan, which is among the countries that do not have diplomatic relations with Israel.
The president said he brought up the Abraham Accords plan with leaders during negotiations on Saturday.
He said he would accept “one or two” countries declining to sign, but said most should be willing.
