BEIRUT/JERUSALEM, May 18 (Reuters) – Israel carried out airstrikes in southern Lebanon on Monday, Lebanese security sources and the state news agency said, while Hezbollah announced new attacks on Israeli forces, continuing the war in Lebanon despite the extension of a U.S.-backed truce.
Since the war began on March 2, more than 3,000 people have been killed in Lebanon, the country’s health ministry reported in its latest casualty toll on Monday.
Reignited by the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, hostilities between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel have rumbled on since U.S. President Donald Trump first announced a ceasefire on April 16, with fighting mostly contained to southern Lebanon.
A 45-day ceasefire extension, announced after a third round of U.S.-hosted talks between Lebanon and Israel on Friday, began at midnight, a Lebanese official said.
The U.S.-led mediation has emerged in parallel to diplomacy aimed at ending the U.S.-Iran conflict. Iran has said ending Israel’s war in Lebanon is one of its demands for a deal over the wider conflict. Hezbollah, which opened fire at Israel on March 2, objects to Beirut taking part in the talks.
AIRSTRIKES, EXPLOSIVE DRONE
Overnight, an Israeli strike near the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbeck killed a commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, a Hezbollah ally, along with his daughter, security sources in Lebanon said.
The Israeli military said it had killed the commander, Wael Mahmoud Abd al-Halim, in a strike, after taking steps to “mitigate the risk of harm to civilians”. It made no mention of Halim’s daughter.
Hezbollah said it launched an explosive drone at an Iron Dome air defence position in the Galilee area of northern Israel, and carried out other attacks on Israeli forces in Lebanon.
Israel’s military said some “launches” aimed at Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon, as well as an explosive drone, had crossed into Israeli territory.
Lebanon’s National News Agency reported Israeli airstrikes on more than half a dozen locations in south Lebanon.
The Israeli military said it could not comment on the reported airstrikes without the coordinates of each one, and didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the attack claimed by Hezbollah on the Iron Dome position.
The Israeli military said earlier on Monday it had struck more than 30 Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon in the previous 24 hours, and warned residents of three villages in the south to leave their homes, saying it intended to act against Hezbollah.
DEATH TOLL RISES
Israeli forces have occupied a self-declared security zone in the south, where they have been razing villages, saying they aim to shield northern Israel from attacks by Hezbollah fighters embedded in civilian areas.
Lebanon’s health ministry reported that the death toll in Lebanon had risen to 3,020 people, among them 619 women, children and healthcare workers.
Its toll doesn’t say how many combatants are among the dead.
Many Hezbollah fighters who have been killed in the war are not included in the health ministry death toll, sources familiar with Hezbollah’s casualty numbers have said.
Reuters reported on May 4 that several thousand Hezbollah fighters had been killed in the war, citing casualty estimates from within the group. The Hezbollah media office said at the time the figure of several thousand fighters killed was false.
Israeli authorities say 18 soldiers have been killed by Hezbollah attacks or while operating in south Lebanon since March 2, in addition to a contractor working for an engineering company on behalf of Israel’s defence ministry. Hezbollah attacks have killed two civilians in northern Israel.
(Reporting by Laila Bassam in Beirut, Alexander Cornwell in Jerusalem, Eman Abouhassira in Dubai; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Aidan Lewis)
Comments