Just one day after a newly announced ceasefire, Israeli strikes hit southern Lebanon overnight and into this morning, killing five people, according to Lebanese official media.
One Lebanese soldier is believed to have been killed in the strikes.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes on more than a dozen locations across the south after midnight, with many of the attacks concentrated in and around the Nabatieh area.
The agency also reported Israeli artillery shelling targeting Nabatieh city and surrounding areas — a frontline region that has seen some of the heaviest fighting in recent days.
According to the NNA, airstrikes on the town of Arab Salim killed three people. One person was killed in Deir Zahrani, and another died after “an enemy drone launched a strike on a motorbike” at the entrance to the town of Dweir.
The latest violence comes despite news yesterday that an immediate truce between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group had been reached. A US official told AFP the ceasefire was brokered through US and Qatari mediation following talks with Israel and Iran, and a Gulf diplomat confirmed the deal.
Israel’s ambassador to the US said Israel would adhere to the ceasefire provided Hezbollah did the same.
Previous truce announcements have done little to stop attacks from either side.
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The ceasefire announcement followed a deadly day in Lebanon. The country’s health ministry said Israeli airstrikes and bombardment across southern and eastern Lebanon killed 47 people yesterday, describing it as the worst violence since Washington and Tehran this week struck an agreement intended to halt the broader Middle East war.
That agreement was also meant to stop the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah inside Lebanon.
Israel’s military said yesterday that four of its soldiers were killed. It also reported carrying out more than 150 strikes on Lebanon, saying the attacks killed “dozens of Hezbollah terrorists”.
In parallel diplomatic contacts, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun told US Secretary of State Marco Rubio yesterday that talks with Israel could only move forward with a comprehensive ceasefire in place.
Under pressure from the US, Lebanon began direct negotiations with Israel in Washington in April, in an effort to end the hostilities and to separate the Israel-Hezbollah conflict from the wider regional war.
A fifth round of talks is expected to begin on Tuesday, according to the State Department.
US officials — including President Donald Trump — have expressed frustration with Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesteriday reiterated that Israeli troops would remain in south Lebanon “as long as necessary”.
Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war in early March, launching rockets at Israel in what it said was retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes.
Israel responded with a massive campaign of airstrikes and a ground invasion.
