Israeli Strikes Pound South, East Lebanon Deadly

Israeli strikes blasted south and east Lebanon Sunday despite a ceasefire as Hezbollah’s head expressed hope for a deal between Iran and the United States to end the Middle East war that includes Lebanon.

The Lebanese health ministry put the overall death toll in the battle since March 2 at 3,123.

Two persons, including a paramedic from the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee, were murdered Sunday in Israeli raids, it said.

The ministry said Sunday it condemned a “massacre” after 11 people including six women and a child were murdered in a single hit in Sir al-Gharbiyeh in the south a day earlier.

Despite a ceasefire in Lebanon that began on April 17 and was recently extended for several weeks, Israel’s military has continued to strike what it says are Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah has also continued attacking Israeli troops who have invaded southern Lebanon and targets across the border, claiming more than 20 such attacks on Sunday including with rockets, attack drones and artillery.

Iran has said that an agreement with Washington to end the regional war would also apply to Lebanon, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said US President Donald Trump had reiterated his backing for Israel’s right “to defend itself against threats on all fronts, including in Lebanon”.

The Israeli military leader Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir declared that “we continue to strike Hezbollah across all dimensions… the security of civilians and the safety of our forces remain paramount”, a statement added.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency said that Israeli warplanes attacked more than 30 sites in south and east Lebanon on Sunday, with some of the strikes causing deaths.

After strikes in numerous spots, AFP correspondents saw enormous plumes of smoke.

The Israeli military also gave evacuation advisories for more than a dozen villages in southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa valley.

Lebanon’s civil defence service reported an overnight Israeli strike destroyed its regional centre in Nabatieh.

AFP photographer observed civil defence workers retrieving equipment from the ruins.

The Israeli military had no comment on the strike when contacted by AFP’s Jerusalem office.DON’T KNIFE US IN THE BACK’

Hezbollah chairman Naim Qassem said that “God willing, this agreement (between the US and Iran) will be finalised… and accordingly that we too will be among those included in this agreement” on a complete halt to hostilities.

Again he said his side rejected direct discussions between Israel and Lebanon.

Lebanese authorities have recently started significant direct discussions with Israel under US auspices and are planning for a fourth round in early June, preceded by a meeting with military teams at the Pentagon on May 29.Shun the direct negotiations… “Don’t be with them and stab us in the back,” Qassem urged.

He also claimed that “disarmament is annihilation and we cannot accept it”, adding that “we and our people face an existential threat”.Even if the whole world turns against us we will not bow down.

After Qassem’s address, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused Hezbollah of wanting to pull Lebanon “back into chaos”.

Hezbollah pulled Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2, firing rockets at Israel to retaliate for the execution of Iran’s supreme commander in US-Israeli bombings.

According to the truce declared by Washington, Israel has the right to respond to “planned, imminent or ongoing attacks”.

Israeli troops that invaded Lebanon are also operating inside an Israeli-declared “yellow line” that runs around 10 kilometres (six miles) inside Lebanon from its southern border.