Israel, Hezbollah trade blows despite Trump declaring deal
Israel continued to strike southern Lebanon on Tuesday as Iran-backed Hezbollah attacked its troops there despite an apparent Washington-brokered de-escalation deal and a fourth round of U.S.-hosted talks between Lebanon and Israel.
U.S. President Donald Trump had announced an agreement to halt some attacks on Monday, but neither side has publicly accepted it and Israel's defense minister said the Lebanese capital's southern suburbs remained potential targets.
The deal, according to a statement from the Lebanese embassy in Washington, would, at first, stop Israeli attacks on Beirut and Hezbollah attacks on Israeli territory.
Senior Hezbollah official Mahmoud Qmati told AFP in a written statement the group "will not accept a partial ceasefire."
"The Zionist enemy should know that any aggression against the suburbs could lead to a deeper and stronger response" from the group, he added.
Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported Israeli strikes, some of them deadly, on around 30 locations across the south on Tuesday.
Hezbollah meanwhile said it attacked Israeli troops in southern Lebanese lands they occupy, but has not claimed attacks in Israel.
The Israeli military said it intercepted two projectiles from Lebanon, without reporting any injuries.
Near Sidon, in the south, rescuers recovered the bodies of six members of the same family, including two children and a woman, following an Israeli strike.
Further south in the historic city of Tyre, the Jabal Amel hospital, severely damaged by an Israeli attack nearby on Monday that wounded 39 staffers, resumed operations.
Lebanon's health ministry said on Tuesday that Israeli attacks had killed at least 3,468 people since March 2 -- an increase of 35 compared to Monday.
At least 26 Israeli soldiers and one civilian contractor have been killed over the same time frame.
- 'Crazy' -
Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2 by firing rockets at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran's supreme leader, and Tehran has insisted that Lebanon be included in any peace deal with Washington.
Recent days have seen a dramatic escalation in fighting and bombardment as Israeli troops staged their deepest ground offensive into Lebanon in two decades.
Citing what he called Hezbollah's "repeated violations" of a ceasefire officially in place since April 17 but never respected by either side, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, a densely populated Hezbollah stronghold.
According to U.S. news portal Axios, however, Trump called Netanyahu "fucking crazy" and accused him of putting peace talks with Iran at risk.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Washington "endorsed this principle" that Israel would hit the suburbs if Hezbollah continued firing at Israel.
"If Israeli towns continue to be attacked, we will evacuate and strike the Shiite Dahiyeh quarter in Beirut, Hezbollah's stronghold," Katz said.
In the southern suburbs, where many residents had fled the day before, many shops were closed on Tuesday, while an Israeli drone flew over the area at low altitude, according to an AFP journalist.
Resident Layla Shehab, 35, decided to return as "we found the situation has calmed down a bit".
- 'Consolidate the ceasefire' -
According to Lebanese authorities, Hezbollah would no longer fire into Israel under the agreement revealed by Trump, while the Israeli military would spare Beirut's southern suburbs.
An adviser to Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally, told AFP that he would guarantee that the group would respect a "global ceasefire", if one were agreed.
Lebanese and Israeli delegations meanwhile began a new round of talks in Washington, the fourth between the two sides, which have no diplomatic relations, since the start of the war.
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said it was "necessary to consolidate the ceasefire" during the negotiations.
"Negotiations are the least costly choice for Lebanon," he reiterated.
Hezbollah is vehemently opposed to the talks, while Israel wants the group disarmed.
Source: Agence France Presse
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