As Israeli fire and Hezbollah rockets again lit up the Lebanon-Israel border, Lebanese and Israeli envoys sat down in Washington for another round of direct talks — with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arguing that only one force stands in the way of a deal.
The latest exchanges followed US President Donald Trump’s announcement on Monday that he had secured an agreement which, according to the Lebanese embassy in Washington, would initially be limited to Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Hezbollah attacks on Israeli territory before later widening.
Israel has been battling Hezbollah since the group pulled Lebanon into the broader Middle East war by launching attacks on Israel on 2 March in support of Iran.
Neither party has publicly endorsed Mr Trump’s arrangement. Senior Hezbollah official Mahmud Qomati told AFP in a written statement that the group “will not accept a partial ceasefire”.
On the ground, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Israeli strikes — some of them deadly — hit around 30 locations across the south yesterday.
Hezbollah said it targeted Israeli troops in southern Lebanese lands they occupy, while stopping short of claiming any strikes inside Israel.
Israeli and Lebanese envoys attend a meeting hosted by the US at the State Department in Washington
Israel’s military said it intercepted two projectiles fired from Lebanon and reported no injuries.
The cross-border violence unfolded as Israeli and Lebanese diplomats arrived in the United States for what was described as a fourth round of direct talks since the current war began.
“Israel and Lebanon can do a peace deal tomorrow,” Mr Rubio told a hearing of the US Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee.
“Israel has no territorial claims in Lebanon. Hezbollah is the impediment,” he said.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, whose government faces intense internal pressure over the diplomacy, called the US-hosted talks — which Hezbollah strongly opposes — “the least costly choice for Lebanon”.
Mr Rubio said Washington wanted the Israel-Lebanon track kept separate from talks with Iran aimed at ending the wider Middle East war launched by the US and Israel against Iran on 28 February.
Iran has repeatedly tied the conflicts together and warned that Israel’s expanding campaign in Lebanon could jeopardize the US-Iran ceasefire that has been in place since 8 April.
The past several days have brought a sharp escalation in strikes and shelling as Israeli forces carried out their deepest ground push into Lebanon in two decades.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Hezbollah was the only ‘impediment’ to a peace deal
Pointing to what he described as Hezbollah’s “repeated violations” of a ceasefire officially in force since 17 April — though never observed by either side — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Axios reported, however, that Mr Trump urged Mr Netanyahu to pull back, calling him “crazy” in a phone call and accusing him of endangering the peace talks with Iran.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz later said Israel had set “a new equation” with US backing: Hezbollah fire would be met with Israeli strikes on Beirut’s suburbs.
In the southern suburbs, where many residents had fled the previous day, numerous shops were shuttered yesterday and a military drone moved over the area at low altitude, an AFP journalist reported.
Layla Shehab, 35, said she chose to return because “we found the situation has calmed down a bit”.
On Monday, Iran’s Tasnim news agency cited Israel’s actions in Lebanon in reporting that Iran was suspending peace talks with the US.
Mr Trump rejected that claim yesterday, saying the US and Iran were speaking “continuously” — including “one day ago and today”.
Shelters full
Near Sidon in southern Lebanon, rescuers recovered the bodies of six members of the same family after an Israeli strike.
Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike in Nabatieh, Lebanon
Farther south in the historic city of Tyre, Jabal Amel hospital resumed operations after suffering severe damage on Monday.
Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes in the south killed five people yesterday and wounded 48, including a doctor and five employees of Tebnine Governmental Hospital, which was damaged.
The Israeli military also issued a statement alleging Hezbollah members were operating in Tyre’s Christian quarter — an area that until now had avoided evacuation warnings and strikes — and said it would instruct residents to leave if the group remained there.
A few thousand people are still in Tyre’s small old city, where the Christian quarter is located.
With shelters full, some displaced residents were spending nights in cars or tents.
An AFP correspondent said some people began leaving after the Israeli military’s statement.
Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,465 people since 2 March.
At least 26 Israeli soldiers and one civilian contractor have been killed over the same period.
