Israeli strikes kill nine in Lebanon as truce falters

Israeli strikes killed at least nine people across Lebanon on Wednesday, including two paramedics and a Lebanese soldier, as Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel in a new test of a U.S.-mediated effort to curb the fighting.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said the dead included two medics whose ambulance was hit in the Chehour area of southern Lebanon, about 14km east of Tyre. A third person was seriously wounded. The ambulance belonged to the Risala Scouts Association, which is affiliated with the Amal movement, an ally of Hezbollah.

The ministry accused Israel of “demonstrating contempt for international humanitarian law,” which protects medical personnel. It said at least 128 paramedics and healthcare workers have been killed in Israeli attacks on ambulances and medical facilities over the past three months. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. In previous cases, Israel has claimed ambulances were being used for military purposes, without providing evidence.

Six other people — four Syrians and two Palestinians — were killed in an Israeli strike in the al-Housh area, just south of the coastal city of Tyre, the Health Ministry said. The Lebanese army said one soldier was killed in an Israeli air strike on the road between Nabatieh and Kfar Tebnit, and that two other soldiers were injured in a separate strike on their vehicle between Deir Zahrani and Nabatieh. The army denounced what it called “a pattern of deliberate strikes targeting army personnel, vehicles and positions.”

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency also reported an Israeli strike on a car on the busy coastal highway in Khaldeh, just south of Beirut. Reuters, citing Lebanese security sources, reported that two people were injured. The BBC said it was the closest strike to the capital since a partial ceasefire was announced Monday.

Hezbollah said it fired a rocket barrage at a gathering of Israeli soldiers in northern Israel “in response to the Israeli enemy army’s violation of the ceasefire.” The group also said it carried out drone attacks on Israeli troops operating in the Odaisseh, Zawtar al-Sharqiya and Yahmar al-Shaqif areas of southern Lebanon.

The Israeli military said it intercepted a “hostile aircraft” near the Manara and Kiryat Shmona areas and two projectiles that crossed from Lebanon near Misgav Am. Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Leiter said the interception prevented “what could have been a deadly attack on civilians, including children,” Al Jazeera reported.

The violence came as Israeli and Lebanese diplomats held a second day of talks in Washington aimed at strengthening the partial ceasefire. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he hoped the talks would produce “an action plan on a track for security in [Lebanon], independent from Hezbollah.”

According to the Lebanese government, the partial ceasefire announced Monday provides that Israel will not launch a broad offensive on Beirut if Hezbollah refrains from attacking Israel. Israeli leaders have said strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs could resume if Hezbollah continues cross-border attacks.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday he had been “a little bit perturbed at his constantly fighting with Lebanon,” referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “At some point, I said: ‘Bibi, we’ve got to stop this,’” Trump told the New York Post’s Pod Force One podcast. Netanyahu later told CNBC: “Sometimes, like the best families, we have these tactical disagreements. We always find a way to resolve them.”

Lebanon’s Health Ministry says at least 3,516 people have been killed and 10,674 wounded since Israel escalated its attacks on Lebanon on March 2. The ministry’s death toll does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. The United Nations says more than one million people have registered as displaced in Lebanon. Israel says 26 of its soldiers and four Israeli civilians have been killed on both sides of the border during the war.