Attacks in south Lebanon strain ceasefire on eve of Washington talks

At least four people were killed in Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, Lebanon's state news agency reported, and Hezbollah said it launched an attack drone at Israeli forces in the south, straining a ceasefire between the Iran-backed group and Israel.

On the eve of talks in Washington between the Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Beirut would seek an extension of the 10-day, US-mediated ceasefire, which is set to expire on Sunday.

Hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel reignited on March 2, when the Lebanese group opened fire in support of Iran.

The ceasefire in Lebanon emerged separately from Washington’s efforts to resolve its conflict with Tehran, though Iran had called for Lebanon to be included in any broader truce. The United States has denied any link between the tracks.

More than 2,400 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel launched an offensive in response to Hezbollah's March 2 attack, according to Lebanese authorities. Israel has seized a belt of territory at the border where its troops remain, saying it aims to create a buffer zone to shield northern Israel from attacks by Hezbollah, which fired hundreds of rockets at Israel during the conflict.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) said an Israeli strike hit a car in Tayri, a village in south Lebanon, killing two people inside.

A senior Lebanese military official said an Israeli drone dropped a grenade on rescuers trying to lift a wounded journalist from rubble in Tayri. The Lebanese army asked the Israeli military through a US-led mechanism to allow rescuers to retrieve the wounded journalist, the official said.

The Israeli military said it was not preventing rescue teams from reaching the area.

The Israeli military said it had struck one of two vehicles that had departed "from a military structure used by Hezbollah" and approached troops in "a manner that posed an immediate threat to their safety". It said the people in the vehicles had crossed Israel's "Forward Defense Line" - its line of deployment in the south - and accused them of violating the ceasefire.

"Reports were received that two journalists were injured as a result of the strikes," the military said, adding that the details of the incident were under review.

An Israeli airstrike in the southern town of Yohmor killed another two people, NNA and Lebanon's health ministry said.

Hezbollah said it attacked an Israeli artillery position in southern Lebanon with a drone, in response to what it said was an Israeli ceasefire violation. The Israeli military said it had intercepted "a hostile aircraft" launched by Hezbollah towards Israeli soldiers in south Lebanon.

Hezbollah attacks killed two civilians in Israel while 15 Israeli soldiers have died in Lebanon since March 2, Israel ​says.

BEIRUT TO SEEK END TO ISRAELI DEMOLITIONS

Aoun said Beirut's envoy to Thursday's talks, Lebanese Ambassador to Washington Nada Moawad, would seek a ceasefire extension and a halt to demolitions being carried out by Israel in villages in the south.

A Lebanese official said Beirut wants a ceasefire extension as a prerequisite for talks to expand beyond the ambassadorial level to the next phase, in which Lebanon would push for an Israeli withdrawal, the return of Lebanese detained in Israel and a delineation of the land border.

Hezbollah, which says the Lebanon ceasefire was the fruit of Iranian pressure, has condemned Beirut for seeking talks with Israel, reflecting wider splits with the government that has sought Hezbollah's peaceful disarmament for a year.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, in a speech, said Israel had taken a "historic decision to negotiate directly with Lebanon after more than 40 years" whilst also calling it a "failed state". "Let's work together against the terror state that Hezbollah built in your territory," Saar said, addressing Lebanon.

The Israeli military said it had killed two militants who had crossed its "Forward Defense Line" on Tuesday and approached Israeli soldiers, saying they had violated the ceasefire.

DRUZE LEADER URGES CLEAR AGENDA, INCLUDING WITHDRAWAL

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to attend Thursday's meeting. Israel will be represented by its ambassador to Washington, Yechiel Leiter.

Aoun has cited goals including halting Israeli attacks on Lebanon and securing the withdrawal of Israeli troops. In a speech on Friday, he said a ceasefire should be transformed into "permanent agreements that preserve the rights of our people, the unity of our land, and the sovereignty of our nation".

Lebanon and Israel have remained in an official state of war since the establishment of Israel in 1948.

Lebanon's most senior Shi'ite state official, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, is against face-to-face negotiations with Israel, saying Beirut could have negotiated indirectly.

Lebanon's leading Druze politician, Walid Jumblatt, said on Tuesday that the most Lebanon could offer is an update to a 1949 armistice agreement with Israel.