Israel continued to strike southern Lebanon on Tuesday as Iran-backed Hezbollah attacked its troops there despite an apparent Washington-brokered de-escalation deal and a fourth round of US-hosted talks between Lebanon and Israel.
US President Donald Trump had announced an agreement to halt some attacks on Monday, but neither side has publicly accepted it, and Israel’s defence minister said the Lebanese capital’s southern suburbs remained potential targets.
The deal, according to a statement from the Lebanese embassy in Washington, would, at first, stop Israeli attacks on Beirut and Hezbollah attacks on Israeli territory.
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Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported several Israeli strikes across the south on Tuesday.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, said it attacked Israeli troops in southern Lebanese lands they occupy, but has not claimed attacks in Israel.
The Israeli military said it intercepted two projectiles from Lebanon, without reporting any injuries.
Near Sidon, in the south, rescuers recovered the bodies of six members of the same family, including two children and a woman, following an Israeli strike.
Further south in the historic city of Tyre, the Jabal Amel hospital, severely damaged by an Israeli attack nearby on Monday that wounded 39 staffers, resumed operations.
Lebanon’s health ministry said on Tuesday that Israeli attacks had killed at least 3,468 people since March 2 — an increase of 35 compared to Monday.
At least 26 Israeli soldiers and one civilian contractor have been killed over the same time frame.
Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2 by firing rockets at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, and Tehran has insisted that Lebanon be included in any peace deal with Washington.
Recent days have seen a dramatic escalation in fighting and bombardment as Israeli troops staged their deepest ground offensive into Lebanon in two decades.
Citing what he called Hezbollah’s “repeated violations” of a ceasefire officially in place since April 17 but never respected by either side, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, a densely populated Hezbollah stronghold.
According to Axios, however, Trump called Netanyahu “fucking crazy” and accused him of putting peace talks with Iran at risk.
