Israel's latest strikes in southern Lebanon raised the day's death toll to at least 22, according to Lebanon's health ministry, intensifying pressure around a fragile ceasefire and looming U.S.-brokered talks.
The ministry said six people, including three children and two women, were killed in Arab Salim. It said one child died in a strike on Harouf, while three more people, including two children, were killed in Roumin. Earlier in the day, the ministry had said 12 people were killed in attacks that targeted vehicles, mostly south of Beirut.
Those earlier strikes hit cars along or near the coastal highway between the capital and the south. The National News Agency said two strikes hit vehicles on the road and a third struck nearby. An AFP photographer saw a burnt-out car and rescuers carrying away a body near Jiyeh. Another strike hit a car in Sidon, where the ministry said one person was killed. Three further strikes on cars in the Tyre district killed three more people, according to the ministry.
The latest raids came on the eve of a new round of direct negotiations between Lebanon and Israel in Washington, with the United States acting as broker. Lebanon has asked Washington to pressure Israel to halt the strikes ahead of the talks. Hezbollah has opposed the process and its leader, Naim Qassem, warned on Tuesday that the group's fighters would turn the battlefield into "hell" for Israel.
Israel said its military struck Hezbollah infrastructure, weapons storage facilities and rocket launchers in southern Lebanon. The army has said it reserves the right under the ceasefire terms to act against what it calls planned, imminent or ongoing attacks. It also issued evacuation warnings for nine areas, including Burj al-Shemali, where an AFP correspondent saw thick smoke.
The violence has continued despite the ceasefire arrangement released by Washington on April 17. Israel's attacks since then have killed more than 400 people in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures. The ministry says more than 2,800 people have been killed in Lebanon since Hezbollah drew the country into the wider regional war in early March, including at least 200 children.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon said it was increasingly concerned about activity by Hezbollah fighters and Israeli soldiers near UN positions in southern Lebanon. It said drones had exploded in and around its bases and put peacekeepers at risk. The force also said several incidents in recent days involved drones presumed to belong to Hezbollah.
For Lebanon, the casualty figures now sit alongside a wider diplomatic effort. Veteran diplomat Simon Karam is set to lead the Washington talks for Beirut, as officials try to use the ceasefire framework to limit further escalation. But with dead civilians, destroyed vehicles and new military claims on both sides, the gap between diplomacy and the battlefield remains wide.
