Israeli soldiers killed two people and wounded two others in southern Lebanon, Lebanese state media reported, in an incident that threatened a recently established ceasefire after two days of relative calm. Israel's military said those targeted were armed and posed an immediate danger to its troops.
Lebanon's National News Agency said the two men were standing near an excavator clearing a road in a town near Nabatieh when Israeli forces fired machine guns towards them. The report described the dead as civilians. The Israeli military offered a different account, saying it had struck armed individuals in the Ali al-Taher ridge area, within territory where Israel has declared a security zone.
Independent reporting did not resolve the conflicting descriptions. No names for the dead or wounded were provided, and there was no independent account establishing whether they were armed or threatening soldiers.
Hezbollah called the shooting a clear breach of the truce but did not announce an immediate response. Earlier, Mahmoud Qamati, deputy head of the group's political council, had warned that Hezbollah would answer Israeli violations in kind. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Israel Katz and military chief Eyal Zamir said Israel would continue acting against perceived threats and dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure.
Netanyahu also said Israeli forces would retain freedom of action and remain in their southern Lebanon security zone for as long as necessary. Lebanon seeks a full Israeli withdrawal. President Joseph Aoun said negotiation was the route to restoring Lebanese rights and expressed hope that talks in Washington would produce a decisive result.
The United States convened a new round of discussions between Lebanon and Israel at the State Department. Lebanon was represented by Ambassador Nada Moawad and Israel by Ambassador Yechiel Leiter. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington would work with Lebanon's elected government and that the Lebanon process would be treated separately from any agreement with Iran.
The negotiations face basic disagreements. Israel is demanding Hezbollah's disarmament, while Hezbollah says talks should address mutual security and exclude its weapons. Lebanon also wants Israeli forces to leave a buffer area reported to cover about 6 percent of Lebanese territory.
The human cost of the wider conflict remained high. The report said that Israeli attacks in Lebanon had killed at least 4,192 people since March 2 and displaced at least 1.2 million. Israeli losses in the conflict were listed as 32 soldiers and four civilians.
Against that background, the June 23 shooting became an immediate test of whether contradictory battlefield accounts could be contained through the ceasefire mechanism or would trigger renewed escalation.
