Israeli drone strikes on southern Lebanon killed eight people, including two children, just a day after Donald Trump said Israel and Hezbollah had agreed to dial back fighting.
Despite the announcement from Trump on Monday, neither Hezbollah nor Israel appeared keen to stop their conflict on Tuesday.
Hezbollah launched dozens of projectiles towards Israeli soldiers and citizens on Tuesday.
The ongoing fighting risks derailing Trump’s efforts to end the war with Iran, with Tehran making ending the conflict in Lebanon a key part of its negotiations with the US.
On Tuesday, Iranian media reported that Iranian mediators had stopped communicating after Israel threatened to bomb Beirut.
A regional official involved in the mediation, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the talks to the Associated Press, said Iran had not communicated at all on Tuesday.
The strikes come as a second round of talks between Israel and Lebanon is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday in Washington, where Lebanese negotiators are set to seek a full ceasefire that will prevent future attacks.
The talks began in April and were the first in more than three decades between the countries, which have no formal diplomatic relations. Hezbollah has rejected direct talks, counting on pressure from Iran.
The planned talks come days after Israeli ground troops made their deepest incursion into Lebanon in 26 years and Israel then threatened to strike Beirut’s southern suburbs, causing panic in the Lebanese capital as thousands fled.
Trump said Monday he’d spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and had communicated with Hezbollah through mediators, and that no troops would be “going to Beirut”.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that Israel previously refrained from attacking Beirut out of deference for negotiations between the US and Iran.
However, he said Netanyahu had informed Trump in a phone call late on Monday that Israel would attack Beirut’s southern suburbs if Hezbollah continued targeting northern Israel, echoing comments from the prime minister the previous day.
An Israeli drone strike hit a car on the road linking the southern town of Marjayoun with the city of Nabatiyeh, killing James Karam, a dentist from the nearby Christian town of Qlayaa, along with his daughter and son, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported on Tuesday.
They also reported that an Israeli airstrike on Monday killed six people in the southern village of Marwaniyeh.
Hezbollah said on Tuesday its fighters fired anti-tank missiles on Israeli troops who were pushing into the southern village of Hadatha, about four miles from the Israeli border.
Sirens sounded in several areas in northern Israel, its military said in a statement. It added that “a suspicious aerial target” was identified in the area where Israeli soldiers are operating in southern Lebanon, but that no injuries were reported.
The latest round of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has killed 3,433 people in Lebanon and displaced more than a million people.
According to Netanyahu’s office, at least 27 Israeli soldiers and a defence contractor have been killed in or near southern Lebanon. Two civilians have also been killed in northern Israel.
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