Israel-Lebanon Tensions Rise After Strikes Kill Two, Hezbollah Cites Truce Violation

Israel-Lebanon Tensions Rise After Strikes Kill Two, Hezbollah Cites Truce Violation

An Israeli strike on a vehicle in southern Lebanon killed two people on Wednesday, Lebanese state media reported, with militant group Hezbollah calling it another “violation” of a truce between the two sides.

Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2 with rocket fire at Israel to avenge the killing of Iran’s supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes.

Israel responded with airstrikes and a ground offensive that Lebanon says have killed more than 4,100 people.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said that “two people were killed” when an Israeli drone targeted their vehicle near the town of Kfar Rumman.

The Israeli military had said earlier that it targeted “two armed Hezbollah terrorists in the area of Ali al-Taher Ridge” near the city of Nabatieh “who posed a threat”, vowing that it will “continue to operate to remove immediate threats”.

It then said it also targeted “a vehicle carrying suspects… crossing the security zone in the Ali al-Taher Ridge area, posing a threat to (Israeli) soldiers”.

Hezbollah accused Israel of a new ceasefire “violation” on Wednesday after an Israeli drone killed two people in southern Lebanon a day after two people died in Israeli gunfire.

“For the second time in less than 48 hours, the Israeli enemy army deliberately targeted Lebanese citizens who were inspecting their homes” near the town of Kfar Rumman, the Iran-backed group said in a statement.

US Proposes Pilot Plan for Partial Israeli Withdrawal From Lebanon

Hezbollah said it “reiterates that the enemy’s actions constitute a blatant violation of the ceasefire to which it has adhered thus far, and that it is monitoring and documenting these violations”.

On Monday, Iran war mediators Pakistan and Qatar said that Tehran and Washington had agreed to set up a “de-confliction cell” to limit flare-ups in Lebanon following talks in Switzerland on ending the wider Middle East war, which Tehran has linked to halting the parallel conflict in Lebanon.

The violence in Lebanon has ebbed in recent days, but Israel’s defence minister insisted that its troops in the neighbouring country’s south were going nowhere.

“We have announced that in any case we are not withdrawing and, as of this moment… there is no American demand for Israel to withdraw from Lebanon,” Katz said in an interview in Tel Aviv.

Under US pressure, Lebanese officials began direct talks in April with Israel in Washington, with Lebanese authorities seeking to separate the negotiations from the US-Iran deal.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun noted on Wednesday that “the negotiations in Washington are separate from what came out of the meetings in Switzerland” between the United States and Iran. AFP

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