BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Hezbollah said it had attacked troops in northern Israel on Wednesday, as Israeli strikes killed at least nine people in southern Lebanon, dampening hopes for an end to the cycle of violence.
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Hezbollah said it had attacked troops in northern Israel on Wednesday, as Israeli strikes killed at least nine people in southern Lebanon, dampening hopes for an end to the cycle of violence.
Since then, Israel has said it has Washington’s backing to strike Beirut’s southern suburbs — a Hezbollah stronghold — if the group targets northern Israeli communities.
Senior Hezbollah official Mahmud Qomati had said on Tuesday that the group would “not accept a partial ceasefire”.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he hoped the negotiations would produce “an action plan”.
Speaking ahead of the talks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US broadcaster CNBC that he and Trump shared the goal “to disarm Hezbollah and… to demilitarise Lebanon”.
He said the group “puts all the citizens of Lebanon at gunpoint and uses Lebanon as a platform to launch terror missiles into our cities”.
he NNA also reported strikes on more than 20 locations in the south, some after Israel’s military warned residents of several villages to evacuate. The health ministry said an Israeli attack on Al-Hawsh near the city of Tyre killed four Syrians and two Palestinians.
Lebanon’s army said a soldier was also killed in an Israeli strike, while an officer and a soldier were wounded in a separate attack on a military vehicle.