New Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon left five people dead on Saturday June 20, according to the official Lebanese news agency ANI. For its part, the Lebanese army announced, again this Saturday, the death of one of its soldiers in the south of the country. These strikes came despite the announcement the day before of a ceasefire between Israel and the pro-Iranian Hezbollah.
The strikes targeted more than a dozen localities after midnight and Saturday morning, many in the Nabatiyé sector, where artillery fire also took place, according to the ANI agency. Three people were killed in Arab Salim and one in Deir Zahrani, while another died “after enemy drone fire targeting a motorcycle” at the entrance to the town of Dweir, the ANI agency said.
“A strike by the Israeli enemy targeted an army soldier on the Kfar Rumman-Nabatiyé road,” leading to his death, the army said in a statement, denouncing “the continuation of brutal Israeli attacks (which) aims to hinder any solution to restore stability in Lebanon.”
On Friday, a US official told Agence-France-Presse that an immediate truce between Israel and the Iranian-backed Shiite Hezbollah organization had been reached by US and Qatari mediators after discussions with Israel and Iran. Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, indicated that his country would respect the ceasefire if Hezbollah did the same, while previous truce announcements had had little effect.
Before the new announcement, Israeli strikes had left 47 dead and nearly a hundred injured on Thursday night, according to Lebanese authorities. It was the heaviest toll since the conclusion, on Monday, of the Iranian-American memorandum of understanding which provides for a cessation of hostilities “on all fronts, including in Lebanon” – a point on which Tehran had insisted. The Israeli army reported the death of four of its soldiers, including a high-ranking officer.
Under pressure from the United States, Lebanon began direct talks with Israel in Washington in April, aimed at ending hostilities. A fifth round of negotiations is scheduled to begin Tuesday, according to the State Department. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that Israeli troops would remain in southern Lebanon “as long as necessary.”
