BEIRUT: Lebanon's health ministry said two paramedics from the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee were killed and five others wounded on Sunday in Israeli strikes on the country's south despite a ceasefire. A ministry statement said that Israel "directly targeted, with two strikes, two Health Committee sites", killing one paramedic and wounding three others in Qalaway, and killing another paramedic and wounding two others in Tibnin.
The statement decried Israel's continued "violation of international laws". Israel has kept up strikes despite a ceasefire in place since April 17 that was supposed to halt hostilities with Hezbollah. The Hezbollah has kept up its own attacks, mainly on Israeli troops operating in south Lebanon but also across the border.
Israel strikes have expanded in recent days, while Lebanon's health ministry has raised the overall toll since war erupted to around 2,800 dead, including more than 100 health and emergency workers. Israeli strikes have killed dozens of people in Lebanon since the ceasefire. Under the terms of the truce released by Washington, Israel reserves the right to act against "planned, imminent or ongoing attacks". Its troops are operating in an Israeli-announced "yellow line" around 10 kilometres deep running inside Lebanon's border, where residents have been warned not to return.
On Saturday, Lebanon's National News Agency reported heavy Israeli strikes in various parts of Lebanon including one that killed seven people, and several raids around 20 kilometres south of Beirut outside Hezbollah's traditional strongholds. Lebanon and Israel are preparing to hold a third round of talks on May 14-15 in Washington, with veteran Lebanese diplomat Simon Karam recently appointed by President Joseph Aoun to lead his country's delegation.
A first landmark meeting between the countries, which have no diplomatic relations, was held days before US President Donald Trump announced the ceasefire, while the second round came as he announced a three-week truce extension. Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East conflict on March 2 when it launched rockets at Israel to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes.
Hezbollah said it targeted troops in northern Israel with drones on Saturday in response to repeated Israeli attacks on Lebanon despite an ongoing truce between the two sides. In a statement, the group said that it "targeted a gathering of Israeli enemy army soldiers near Misgav Am", just over the border, in retaliation for "the Israeli enemy's violation of the ceasefire". Hours later, it said it had launched another drone at "a gathering of Israeli enemy soldiers at a helicopter landing pad" in Shlomi, also along the countries' shared frontier.
The group also announced attacks on Israeli military targets inside Lebanon using rockets and drones. After Hezbollah's first announcement, the Israeli military reported "several" explosive drone launches by Hezbollah into Israeli territory, saying one army reservist had been severely wounded and two others moderately injured in one of the attacks, without specifying where. It also said Hezbollah "launched several explosive drones toward (Israeli) soldiers operating in southern Lebanon". "In one of the incidents, an explosive drone hit an unmanned engineering vehicle belonging to IDF soldiers. Damage was caused to the vehicle, and no IDF injuries were reported." — AFP
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