Lebanon says two killed in Israeli strikes

Smoke rises from Israeli artillery shelling on Aita Al Shaab in south Lebanon. (AP/File)

• Ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel are set to resume on Thursday in Qatar, with top diplomats scrambling to avert wider conflict after Iran and Hezbollah vowed revenge for recent high-profile killings

BEIRUT, Lebanon: Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes killed two people in the country’s south on Wednesday, with Hezbollah announcing the deaths of two of its fighters, the latest cross-border violence amid fears of a full-blown regional war.
Hezbollah has traded near daily fire with the Israeli army since the Palestinian militant group Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war.
Ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel are set to resume on Thursday in Qatar, with top diplomats scrambling to avert wider conflict after Iran and Hezbollah vowed revenge for recent high-profile killings.
The Lebanese health ministry said in a statement that an “Israeli enemy” strike on the southern town of Marjayoun killed one person and wounded nine others, revising downwards a previous death toll of three.
The official National News Agency said an “enemy drone targeted a car” in the town square, a usually busy area home to shops.
The health ministry also said one person was killed and another wounded in an Israeli strike in south Lebanon’s Blida village.
The Israeli military said in a statement that its air force had “struck Hezbollah military structures” including in the Blida area.
It later added that Israeli aircraft “eliminated two Hezbollah terrorists” in the Marjayoun area. Hezbollah also announced on Wednesday evening the death of two of its fighters in Israeli fire.
Lebanon’s health ministry earlier reported that an “Israeli enemy” strike in Abbassiyeh, near the southern city of Tyre, wounded 17 people, including two teenagers and an eight-year-old girl, with four people in “critical” condition.
Hezbollah said it launched “volleys of Katyusha rockets” at the city of Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel in response to the Abbassiyeh strike.
The Israeli army said “a number of projectiles” from Lebanon fell in an “open area” without causing injuries.
The Iran-backed group claimed a number of other attacks on Israeli troops and positions on Wednesday, including with “explosive-laden drones.”
The violence since October has killed some 570 people in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also including at least 118 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, 22 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed, according to army figures.
As part of efforts to de-escalate the situation, French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne is set to visit Beirut on Thursday, diplomatic sources said, on the heels of a visit Wednesday by US envoy Amos Hochstein.