Israel kept up strikes on southern Lebanon on Tuesday, killing eight people, including children, as it pressed its campaign against Hezbollah a day after President Donald Trump asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to attack Beirut to avert a further escalation.
Israeli drone strikes on southern Lebanon on Tuesday killed eight people, including two children and their father, a day after US President Donald Trump said Israel and the militant group Hezbollah agreed to dial back fighting.
The ongoing hostilities – despite Trump's announcement and a nominal ceasefire that began in April – are deepening displacement for Lebanon's conflict-weary population. They also are a significant sticking point in negotiations to extend a ceasefire in the US-Israeli war in Iran, as the Islamic Republic wants any such deal to end fighting in Lebanon, too.
Israel kept up strikes on southern Lebanon 24 hours after Trump asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to attack Beirut to avert further escalation in the three-month-old war.
Following Trump's intervention, Lebanon's government said Israel would refrain from carrying out threatened strikes on the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut, while the group would halt attacks against Israel.
But the announcement has failed to reassure many Lebanese or halt the broader war in south Lebanon, which Netanyahu has vowed would continue. The din of an Israeli drone over Beirut kept residents on edge on Tuesday.
The attacks came as Israeli and Lebanese delegations began a new round of direct talks in Washington on Tuesday as diplomatic pressure for a de-escalation mounted. Iran has demanded a Lebanon ceasefire as part of any wider deal with the US to end the three-month-old war that began with US and Israeli attacks on Iran at the end of February.
State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said on X that "progress continues on the political and security tracks" after the first day of talks ended. Another round is scheduled for Wednesday.
"Israel and Lebanon can do a peace deal tomorrow," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a hearing of the US Senate's Foreign Relations Committee.
He added: "Israel has no territorial claims in Lebanon. Hezbollah is the impediment."
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam called the talks, which are strongly opposed by Hezbollah, "the least costly choice for Lebanon".
Dentist, his wife and daughter killed in southern Lebanon
In the south, Israeli air strikes and artillery fire hit a string of towns there and the Israeli military ordered residents of the city of Nabatiyeh to leave ahead of strikes.
Hezbollah announced two operations against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon in the early hours of Tuesday, but no cross-border rocket attacks. The Israeli military overnight said it had intercepted two projectiles crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory.
An Israeli drone strike hit a car on the road linking the southern town of Marjayoun with the city of Nabatiyeh, killing James Karam, a dentist from the nearby Christian town of Qlayaa, along with his daughter and son, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported Tuesday.
The Lebanese army said two soldiers were lightly wounded when a separate drone targeted them on a road outside the city.
Drone strikes killed two Syrians working at a plant nursery in the village of Jibchit and two people in the nearby village of Toul, the news agency reported. A third strike hit a car near the village of Harouf, killing one person. The Israeli military said it wasn't aware of any Israeli strikes in that area.
NNA also reported that an Israeli air strike on Monday killed six in the southern village of Marwaniyeh.
Hezbollah said Tuesday its fighters fired anti-tank missiles on Israeli troops who were pushing into the southern village of Hadatha, about 7 kilometres (4 miles) from the Israeli border.
Sirens sounded in several areas in northern Israel, its military said in a statement. It added that “a suspicious aerial target" was identified in the area where Israeli soldiers are operating in southern Lebanon, but that no injuries were reported.
The latest round of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has killed 3,433 people in Lebanon and displaced more than 1 million people. According to Netanyahu’s office, at least 27 Israeli soldiers and a defence contractor have been killed in or near southern Lebanon. Two civilians have also been killed in northern Israel.
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Hezbollah says it will monitor 'developments'
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned that if Israel's northern communities were attacked, the Israeli military would evacuate and strike Beirut's southern suburbs.
"The test of this policy for protecting our communities will be simple and will become clear in the coming days: either the attacks on Israeli communities stop, or if attacks continue and we strike Dahiyah in Beirut, this equation will be realised," he said.
Israel wants Hezbollah disarmed – an objective shared by the Lebanese administration led by President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, who have sought its peaceful disarmament.
Asked about Monday evening's announcements, Youssef al-Zein, the head of Hezbollah's press office, said the group would not take a public stance without a formal declaration that would compel Israel to implement a comprehensive cessation of hostilities across all Lebanese territory.
He pointed to Israel's continued air strikes on Lebanon after a 2024 truce that ended the last war between Hezbollah and Israel and after the April 16 truce announced by Trump.
"Hezbollah will monitor developments both on the battlefield and in diplomatic channels in the coming days," Zein said.
(FRANCE 24 with AP and Reuters)
