Israeli strikes kill 14 in Lebanon as Pentagon holds security talks

State-run media reported at least 14 people were killed in Israeli air attacks on villages in southern Lebanon. Lebanese and Israeli military delegations are holding security talks at the Pentagon.

The Friday assaults came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Israeli forces had crossed the Litani River in Lebanon, which runs about 30 kilometres (about 19 miles) north of their shared border, in an extended ground incursion.

The “ceasefire” that came into effect on April 17 and was extended for 45 days on May 17 after indirect discussions mediated by the United States, failed to prevent Israel’s current military operation from beginning.

ISRAEL-LEBANON NEGOTIATIONS

Lebanon was expected to urge Israel to halt its continuous attacks, which have accelerated in recent days, during Friday’s talks at the Pentagon.

The Lebanese delegation comprises six officers, headed by the army’s director of operations, Georges Rizkallah.

Brigadier General Amichai Levin, head of the strategic division in the army’s planning directorate, is in Washington for the negotiations on the Israeli side, an Israeli military official said.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun informed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that a ceasefire with Israel is vital. Aoun “emphasised the need to exert all efforts to reach a ceasefire, considering it an essential gateway to moving on to any other step”, said a statement from his office, referring to a phone call.

The statement noted that Rubio repeated the US administration’s commitment to building on the results of earlier ambassador-level conversations between Israel and Lebanon in Washington, and expressed his support for Lebanon’s stability, independence and sovereignty.

During the call, Rubio praised Aoun’s “courage and vision in pursuing direct negotiations with Israel”, Tommy Pigott, a spokesperson for the US Department of State, told reporters.

Hezbollah “is fully responsible for the ongoing fighting,” Rubio said, adding that the armed group must immediately cease its attacks.

‘KILLING OR INJURING THE EQUIVALENT OF 11 KIDS EVERY 24 HRS’

In Friday’s attacks on southern Lebanon, four persons were killed in an Israeli hit on a building in the village of Abbasiyeh, near the city of Tyre, the National News Agency (NNA) said. NNA claimed that another individual was killed in a separate strike on Deir Qanoun en-Nahr.

Eight Syrians were killed in attacks on the al-Harthiyeh region on the fringes of the town of Adloun in Lebanon’s Sidon district.

Earlier on Friday, an Israeli drone strike on the town of Aba in Nabatieh province killed a Lebanese police officer.

Israeli forces also carried out a new wave of air strikes on the cities of as-Sarafand and Khirbet Selm, NNA stated. Israeli aeroplanes also bombed a house in the town of Harayib, wounding a number of people. And Israel launched further strikes, targeting the towns of Gandouriyeh, Froun and al-Mansouri in southern Lebanon.

The United Nations reported 15 children had been killed and 62 injured in Lebanon during the past week.

The UN children’s agency, UNICEF, called the findings “staggering”, and highlighted that children must be safeguarded at all times during conflict under international humanitarian law.

The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health has said that 77 children have been murdered or injured in the last week alone, UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires told a media briefing in Geneva.

“Seven days, 15 kids dead 62 hurt. This is an average of 11 youngsters every single day. Most of these children were hit by air attacks in south Lebanon, we understand. “Yesterday seven children were killed and 30 injured,” he stated.

A HUMANITARIAN DISASTER

Several relief agencies are concerned that they would be forced to withdraw from southern Lebanon due to continuous attacks.

Since March 2, Israel’s military has displaced hundreds of thousands of Lebanese from their homes and they need urgent humanitarian aid.

“If the security situation worsens, we might have to evacuate some areas. “There are some red lines that we cannot cross for the security of our teams,” Jeremy Ristord, with medical NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF), told Al Jazeera.

“Some 40 hospitals in the south are already closed,” he said.

“On top of that, rescue teams are already under a lot of strain as they adapt their interventions to the degrading security situation,” said Ristord, adding that rescuers are worried about “double-tap strikes” by Israel.

“Sometimes they can’t even get in.”

He said 126 civil defence workers have been killed and 310 wounded during the fighting since March – “that’s four casualties a day.”

ISRAELI MILITARY ‘FIRING HEAVY ARTILLERY’ AT HEZBOLLAH

The Israeli military also issued compulsory evacuation warnings Friday for seven more towns in southern Lebanon, two of them roughly 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited troops along the border, his office said in a video.

He said Israeli forces had crossed the Litani River in Lebanon and advanced, and were also acting in Beirut and the Bekaa Valley as part of efforts against Hezbollah across the Lebanese front.

“Netanyahu made a surprise visit to the Lebanese border on Friday confirming that Israeli troops are now positioned north of the Litani River; there has been a focus of Israeli firepower … throughout Nabatieh district,” said Al Jazeera’s Obaida Hitto reporting from Tyre in Lebanon.

Israeli troops have breached Hezbollah’s second lines of security, and are currently “heavily bombarding” the armed group’s third lines of defence, Hitto added.