Deadly Israeli strikes hit highway south of Beirut

Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli drones crashed into three vehicles on a main highway south of Beirut, killing eight people, including a woman and her two children.

The Israeli army said it attacked Hezbollah infrastructure in several areas in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, hours after telling residents of six villages in the south to leave the area.

Lebanon and Israel are scheduled to hold another round of direct talks in Washington on Thursday, as the Trump administration pushes for a breakthrough between the two neighbors who have been at war since Israel’s founding in 1948.

The health ministry confirmed three attacks but did not provide details on the number of people in each vehicle.

Two of Wednesday’s drone strikes hit a highway connecting Beirut to the southern port city of Sidon, while the third hit the town of Saadiyat near the busy highway, the state-run National news agency reported.

The fourth attack took place at the northern entrance of Sidon, when a car crashed into it in the early afternoon, according to state media.

An Associated Press photographer saw the bodies of three people killed in two attacks near the coastal towns of Barja and Jiyeh.

In southern Lebanon, Israeli airstrikes were reported on different towns and villages, while Hezbollah claimed that it would launch more attacks on Israel as both sides continued to fire on each other despite the US-brokered ceasefire that came into effect on April 17.

The latest Israel-Hezbollah war began on March 2, when the Lebanese militant group fired rockets into northern Israel, two days after the United States and Israel attacked Iran.

Lebanese Health Minister Rakan Nassereddine told reporters on Tuesday that 380 people have died and 1,122 have been injured since the ceasefire came into force.

This shows that 2882 people have died and 8786 people have been injured since the beginning of the war.