BEIRUT: The Israeli military renewed an order for people to leave a swathe of southern Lebanon as it pressed the war against Iran-backed Hezbollah on Wednesday, a day after landmark talks with a Lebanese government envoy in Washington.<\/p>\n
Lebanon\u2019s health ministry said the Israeli strikes killed\u00a0at least three paramedics, AFP reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Israeli enemy targeted paramedic teams in the town of Mayfadoun, Nabatiyeh District, three consecutive times,\u201d the ministry said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis resulted in the martyrdom of three paramedics and the injury of six others, while one paramedic remains missing.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than five weeks into a conflict that began when Hezbollah opened fire in support of Tehran, the group condemned the talks with Israel as \u201ca national sin\u201d that would widen divisions in a deeply polarized Lebanon.<\/p>\n
Tuesday\u2019s meeting, hosted by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, took place at a critical juncture in the wider crisis in the Middle East, a week into a fragile ceasefire between the United States, Israel and Iran.<\/p>\n
The Israeli and \u200cLebanese envoys said \u200cthe talks were positive, though ahead of the meeting, Israel had ruled \u200bout \u200cany discussion \u2060of Lebanon\u2019s \u200bdemand \u2060for a ceasefire. Israel has said the aim of the talks is to disarm Hezbollah and achieve peace.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s offensive in Lebanon has killed more than 2,000 people and forced 1.2 million from their homes since March 2, according to Lebanese authorities.<\/p>\n
Lebanon complains to UN<\/p>\n
The Israeli military, which has previously ordered residents to leave the south, on Wednesday reiterated instructions for them to move north of the Zahrani River, saying in a post on X that it was operating with \u201cgreat force\u201d in the area.<\/p>\n
Israel last ordered residents to move north of the Zahrani River on April \u20608. Israel has said it aims to maintain control of a swathe of the \u200csouth up to the Litani River, which runs south of the \u200cZahrani, once the war ends.<\/p>\n
The Israeli military said it had struck \u200bover 200 Hezbollah infrastructure sites in southern Lebanon over the \u200cpast 24 hours.<\/p>\n
Hezbollah fired 40 rockets into Israel on Wednesday morning, an Israeli government spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
Lebanon\u2019s state-run National News Agency said the two Israeli strikes hit\u00a0two vehicles, one in the seafront town of Saadiyat and another on a coastal highway in neighboring Jiyeh, around 20 kilometers\u00a0south of Beirut and outside Hezbollah\u2019s traditional strongholds, AFP reported.<\/p>\n
NNA also reported several other strikes across southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n
Trump has \u200curged Israel to scale back attacks in Lebanon, apparently to avoid undermining the ceasefire with Iran. Israel has not carried out airstrikes on the Beirut area since April 8, when it launched its heaviest attacks yet.<\/p>\n
In a complaint to the United Nations, Lebanon\u2019s Foreign Ministry said the death toll from the April 8 attacks stood at 303, including 30 children and 71 women. Israel \u200chas said the strikes killed more than 250 Hezbollah militants.<\/p>\n
UN experts on Wednesday condemned the strikes.<\/p>\n
Fighting in recent days has focused on the border town of Bint \u2060Jbeil. Israel said on \u2060Monday it had launched a ground assault against militants holed up there.<\/p>\n
Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah, speaking in a televised news conference, said fighters had chosen \u201csteadfastness and martyrdom so the enemy is not permitted to control Bint Jbeil.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018A wrong path\u2019<\/p>\n
Tuesday\u2019s meeting between Lebanon\u2019s Washington ambassador and her Israeli counterpart was the first such direct contact in decades between the two governments, which have remained in a state of war since Israel was established in 1948.<\/p>\n
Fadlallah said the meeting did not reflect Lebanon\u2019s national identity or \u201cthe choices of its people.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes the government not realize the danger of what it has undertaken? And does it understand that it has entered a wrong path that leads only to increasing the rift among the Lebanese?\u201d Fadlallah said.<\/p>\n
Fadlallah said Hezbollah wanted a comprehensive ceasefire, rather than a return to near-daily Israeli strikes and assassinations as seen after it agreed to a previous ceasefire with Israel in November 2024.<\/p>\n
The Lebanese \u200bgovernment has been seeking to disarm Hezbollah peacefully since \u200bthat war. Any move by Lebanon to disarm it by force risks igniting conflict in a country shattered by civil war from 1975 to 1990.<\/p>\n
Reuters \u2013 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BEIRUT: The Israeli military renewed an order for people to leave a swathe of southern Lebanon as it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-394236","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}