Israeli strikes kill at least 14 in southern Lebanon ahead of talks in Washington | Today’s news
The Israeli military attacked Lebanon’s fourth-largest city early Thursday, killing at least 14 people in the south of the country in an ongoing military escalation against the Hezbollah group ahead of key talks in Washington.
Five women and children and a Lebanese soldier were among those killed in the flurry of strikes. Dozens more were injured, according to Lebanon’s health ministry and the state-run National News Agency.
Meanwhile, an Israeli soldier was killed in a Hezbollah drone strike in northern Israel, the Israeli military said.
Netanyahu announced the expansion of attacks in Lebanon
The escalation comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced an increase in Israeli military attacks in Lebanon, apparently triggered by Hezbollah’s use of exploding fiber-optic drones that hit Israeli troops in Lebanon and reached some of Israel’s northern border towns.
Read also | Israel steps up military operation against Hezbollah, days ahead of talks
Lebanese and Israeli military officials are due to hold their first security talks in the US capital on Friday. The talks extended a nominal ceasefire that took effect on April 17, although attacks have since intensified while the Lebanese capital, Beirut, has been spared.
Hezbollah rejected the talks and instead backed its key ally Iran, which made an end to the war in Lebanon a condition for its own Pakistan-brokered talks with Washington.
Ahead of Thursday’s attacks, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee issued a warning for eight buildings in the coastal city of Tire along the Mediterranean Sea and surrounding neighborhoods. Many people fled the area.
Read also | Conflict in the Middle East: Despite the extension of the ceasefire, fresh Israeli airstrikes hit Lebanon
Further north in the city of Sidon, an Israeli drone struck an apartment building where some displaced families lived, killing five people and injuring 21 others, including five children. Among those killed was Hossan Zeidan, who was once a correspondent for Iran’s al-Aalam television in Arabic.
Local residents remember the horror
Mohammad Al-Gharbi, who lived across the street from the building in Sidon, woke up to the sound of the explosion.
“I was in my room when part of the wall and broken glass fell on me and everything collapsed,” he said. “This building that was hit had six apartments occupied by poor families who fled from the south to escape the attacks there, but were hit here.”
In the nearby coastal town of Adloun, an Israeli drone struck a car carrying a fleeing family, killing six people, four of whom were two children and their parents, Lebanon’s health ministry said. Another drone strike, which came without warning, killed two people on a motorcycle near Tyre. The target of the attack was not immediately clear, NNA said.
Elsewhere near the town of Nabatiyeh, the Lebanese army said a soldier was killed in an Israeli drone strike while driving his motorcycle.
Israel’s military said Thursday that a soldier in northern Israel was killed in a Hezbollah drone strike and two reservists were wounded.
Hezbollah claims rocket attacks on Israel
Hezbollah claimed dozens of drone and rocket attacks it said targeted Israeli troops in southern Lebanon and northern Israel. The group said Thursday it had launched several attacks on Israeli troops and tanks that had crossed the Litani River into the town of Zawtar al-Sharqieh near Nabatiyeh, while close-quarters fighting continued.
More than 1 million people in Lebanon have been displaced by the war between Israel and Hezbollah, which was sparked when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel in solidarity with Iran on March 2, two days after the start of the Iran war.
At least 3,269 people have been killed and more than 9,800 injured in Israeli airstrikes since the start of the war, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
According to Netanyahu’s office, at least 23 Israeli soldiers and a defense contractor were killed in or near southern Lebanon, and two civilians were killed in northern Israel, the vast majority by drones.
