Hezbollah<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cA significant number of IDF ground soldiers commenced offensive operations aimed at expanding the Forward Defense Line … the operation is currently expanding to additional areas,\u201d the Israeli military statement said, adding its forces had crossed the Litani river.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Reuters reported the Israeli military saying one of its soldiers had been killed in combat in Southern Lebanon. There were also reports that the IDF had captured a strategic castle in the south, possibly its deepest incursion into Lebanon in 26 years.<\/p>\n
Salam on Saturday defended his government\u2019s engagement with its southern neighbour, after military delegations from both countries held security talks in Washington on Friday, with more US-brokered negotiations planned next week.<\/p>\n
Salam said the outcome of the negotiations was \u201cnot guaranteed\u201d, but called them \u201cthe least costly path for our country and our people\u201d.<\/p>\n
A truce to halt the fighting between Israel and Tehran-backed Hezbollah officially took effect on 17 April, but has never been observed.<\/p>\n
Both Israel and Hezbollah accuse each other of violating the ceasefire and justify their attacks by the other\u2019s alleged breaches.<\/p>\n
A US statement issued after Friday\u2019s Israel-Lebanon talks made no mention of the truce, but said the \u201cproductive military-to-military discussions\u201d would inform next week\u2019s political meeting.<\/p>\n
Lebanon\u2019s state-run National news agency (NNA) reported several Israeli attacks in the south on Saturday, and the Lebanese military said two of its soldiers \u201cwere seriously wounded \u2026 by a hostile Israeli drone\u201d near the southern city of Nabatieh.<\/p>\n
The Israeli military issued fresh evacuation warnings covering villages near Nabatieh and others in the east of the country.<\/p>\n
Hezbollah said it launched multiple attacks targeting northern Israel on Saturday, and had also clashed with Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n
Smoke rises above the village of Kfar Tebnit in Nabatieh where the Israeli army carried out airstrikes on Saturday. Photograph: Anadolu\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
In a statement, the group said it was confronting Israeli forces around the outskirts of the towns of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, Yohmor al-Shaqif and Dibbine, adding that the troops \u201chad not yet succeeded in taking control of the towns\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Israeli military told AFP that more than 25 projectiles were launched from Lebanon towards Israel on Saturday, while air alert sirens sounded in the northern cities of Karmiel and Safed for the first time since the ceasefire, according to the army\u2019s Home Front Command.<\/p>\n
Public broadcaster Kan aired footage shared on social media showing rockets falling into the sea off Israel\u2019s Nahariya, near the border, sending beachgoers fleeing.<\/p>\n
Netanyahu announced on Friday that Israeli forces had advanced beyond the Litani River, which runs about 30km (20 miles) north of the Lebanon-Israel frontier, and were \u201chitting Hezbollah head on\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Lebanese health ministry says that Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,371 people since 2 March, when Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war in support of its backer Iran.<\/p>\n
Hezbollah said it attacked Israel in retaliation for the death of Iran\u2019s supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes when the war erupted on 28 February.<\/p>\n
Iran has insisted that any agreement to end the wider Middle East war<\/a> must also cover Lebanon.<\/p>\nWith Agence France-Presse and Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lebanon\u2019s prime minister accused Israel on Saturday of pursuing a \u201cscorched-earth policy\u201d in his country\u2019s south, urging a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":705938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-705937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=705937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/705938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}