Symbolic imageIsraeli strikes on two southern Lebanese villages killed at least 11 people on Saturday, the deadliest day since June's truce, a day after Hezbollah's leader rejected the US framework. The next Rome round is set for early September.
Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah are bound by a ceasefire meant to stop their fighting in south Lebanon. Reporting describes that truce as fragile, with the two sides still facing each other along the border and each incident raising the question of whether it holds.
Israeli air strikes on two villages in southern Lebanon killed at least 11 people, including three children, on Saturday, the deadliest day since the truce with Hezbollah took effect in June.
Lebanon's prime minister pressed US mediators on Friday for a date for Israel's withdrawal. Hezbollah's leader rejected the framework the same day.
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam accused Israel on Wednesday of systematically destroying homes in southern Lebanon in violation of international law, Daily Sabah reported. The National reports that Hezbollah, which once paid families $14,000 for a destroyed home, may no longer be able to compensate them.
Emergency services, residents and environmental groups in south Lebanon told the Guardian on Wednesday that the Israeli military is dropping flares that burn forests and crops. Hussein Fakih, head of the civil defence in the Nabatiya region, said most of his teams' missions are now fire-related.
A double Israeli strike in Lebanon killed one person and damaged an ambulance, Le Monde reported, the latest bombardment despite the truce between Israel and Hezbollah. According to TASS, Lebanese officials say Beirut is in no rush for further talks and insists first on expanding the zones in southern Lebanon free of Israeli troops, consolidating the ceasefire and halting strikes on infrastructure.
Talks between Lebanon and Israel brokered by Washington are to be held in Rome in early September, TASS reported on Monday, citing television reporting. A State Department official told Al Jazeera that both sides face political restrictions and internal pressure, while CENTCOM commander Cooper told an Israeli operational forum that US support would endure, according to the Jerusalem Post.
The New York Times reported on Sunday that the United States and Israel are targeting not only the weapons of the Lebanese group Hezbollah but also its money. Dmitri Gendelman, an adviser in the Israeli prime minister's office, said Israeli forces remain in the security zone in southern Lebanon because Hezbollah has not been disarmed.
Lebanon said Israeli troops intruded into Zawtar al-Gharbiyah in the south, where Lebanese soldiers were injured while disarming unexploded ordnance near an earth barrier that Israeli forces reportedly built, Al Jazeera reported on Saturday. On Sunday the Israeli military said it had expanded its investigation into an abnormally strong explosion that killed two reservists in Lebanon, with its Northern Command saying it cannot be ruled out that Hezbollah tampered with an explosive device.
Washington has called on Israel to reduce tensions in Lebanon and assured Beirut of its commitment to a successful conclusion of the negotiations, TASS reported on Friday, citing television sources. The Jerusalem Post reports that some sessions of last week's Rome talks ended early in response to Israeli strikes on Hezbollah infrastructure in Lebanon, and that experts see Hezbollah's attempts to wreck the process as failing.
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Legal Agenda found that an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon earlier this year deliberately attacked journalist Amal Khalil and her colleague Zeinab Faraj in the knowledge that they were civilians. Khalil was killed and Faraj wounded; the groups said the strike likely constituted a war crime.
Israel resumed air and artillery attacks in southern Lebanon after two of its soldiers were killed by an explosive device on Wednesday. The strikes ran alongside US-mediated talks with Lebanon in Rome that brought little movement.
Israeli aircraft bombed two towns in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, killing one person and injuring 11, Lebanon's health ministry said. The Israeli military said the strikes answered Hezbollah violations of the June ceasefire and that it issued evacuation warnings beforehand, the first since June, while Israeli and Lebanese negotiators were meeting in Rome.
Lebanon and Israel held a new round of direct negotiations in Rome. The National reported that Lebanon demanded Israel stop blocking its takeover of the agreed pilot zones.
Israeli forces carried out large demolition operations near the Beaufort fortress in south Lebanon in the night from Thursday to Friday, saying they were destroying Hezbollah tunnels, Le Monde reported. The blasts sent powerful shockwaves through the south of the country while negotiations continue.
Dmitri Gendelman, an adviser in the Israeli prime minister's office, said implementation of the agreement with Lebanon depends on Hezbollah disarming, adding that 'Israel's security is not a bargaining chip'. Five Lebanese soldiers were wounded on Sunday when their vehicle ran over an explosive device in the southern town of Kafra; the Israeli military said the device belonged to Hezbollah and did not come from an Israeli strike.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that it had killed several Hezbollah fighters in south Lebanon and that an Israeli soldier was wounded there despite a ceasefire. The confrontation, over a strategic ridge, challenges the fragile truce between Israel and the group, the New York Times reported.