Israeli strikes kill six in southern Lebanon hours after extension of ceasefire | Israel
Just hours after its envoys agreed with the Lebanese government to extend a ceasefire, Israel launched airstrikes in southern Lebanon, killing at least six people, including three medics working at a health centre.
Israel also announced that it killed Hamas military chief Izz al-Din al-Haddad in an attack on Gaza on Friday.
In another sign that the region may be on the verge of a possible return to full-scale war, US and Israeli media reports said Donald Trump has been briefed on his military options in Iran if he decides to break the five-week ceasefire and continue attacks in the hope of forcing concessions at the negotiating table.
Lebanon’s state media reported that at least five villages in the country’s south had been hit by attacks, and the Israeli military confirmed on Saturday that it had targeted what it said was “Hezbollah infrastructure” in southern Lebanon.
An airstrike on Friday hit a clinic run by the Hezbollah-linked Islamic Health Committee, killing six people, including three medics, Lebanese officials said. In the Israeli military statement, it was stated that Hezbollah militants who were preparing to fire rockets at their troops in southern Lebanon were killed.
The new attacks, which triggered a new exodus of civilians from the south, came hours after envoys from Israel and Lebanon wrapped up a round of talks in Washington that agreed to extend a month-long, partially observed ceasefire for another 45 days and establish a US-supervised security mechanism between their militaries.
But while Hezbollah condemned the talks, Israel only partially fulfilled the ceasefire that Trump ordered on April 17; While attacks on Beirut and northern Lebanon in general were restricted, their military operations focused on the south, where their troops clashed with Hezbollah fighters.
Israel also continues operations against Hamas in Gaza, confirming on Saturday that it had killed Haddad, the last Hamas military chief to die in Gaza and the last surviving senior Hamas official suspected of planning the October 2023 attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and sparked the latest Gaza war.
Israel accused Hamas of violating a fragile eight-month ceasefire in Gaza by refusing to disarm. Hamas, on the other hand, accused Israel of not complying with the first phase of the ceasefire, continuing air strikes and secretly moving the border line agreed between the two forces westwards to the Hamas-controlled areas of Gaza.
In recent days, Israeli media has been predicting a return to all-out war across the region as ceasefires fray amid insufficient diplomatic progress. As Trump returned to the United States from his visit to China on Friday, the New York Times reported that he had been briefed on options for the United States to return to the offensive in Iran, but had not yet made a decision.
Pakistan-led mediation has failed to make diplomatic progress for more than a month since Islamabad brokered a ceasefire in the Iran war; The negotiating positions of the United States and Iran were still far apart.
