The Israeli military intensified its attacks on Lebanon early Thursday, pounding the country's fourth largest city and killing at least eight people in an ongoing escalation against the Hezbollah group, just ahead of crucial security talks in Washington.
Several others were injured in the strikes, according to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency. Meanwhile, an Israeli soldier in northern Israel was killed in a Hezbollah drone attack, the military confirmed.
Escalation Ahead of Talks
The intensification follows Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's announcement of expanded military operations in Lebanon, apparently triggered by Hezbollah's use of fiber-optic exploding drones that have struck Israeli troops in Lebanon and reached some northern border towns.
Lebanese and Israeli military officials are scheduled to hold their first security talks on Friday in Washington. These discussions have extended a nominal ceasefire that took effect on April 17, although attacks have since intensified while sparing the Lebanese capital Beirut.
Hezbollah has dismissed the talks and instead endorsed its key ally Iran, which has made ending the war in Lebanon a condition for its own negotiations with Washington, brokered by Pakistan.
Strikes on Tyre and Sidon
Prior to Thursday's attacks, Israeli military Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued warnings to eight buildings in the coastal city of Tyre along the Mediterranean and surrounding neighborhoods. Many residents have fled the area.
Further north in Sidon, an Israeli drone struck an apartment building housing displaced families. Mohammad Al-Gharbi, who lived across the street, said: 'I was in my room when part of the wall and shattered glass fell on me, and everything was thrown into chaos. This building had six apartments occupied by poor families who fled from the south to escape attacks, only to be hit here.'
In the nearby coastal town of Adloun, an Israeli drone struck a car carrying a fleeing family, killing six people including children. Another drone strike, without warning, killed two people on a motorcycle near Tyre. The target of that attack remains unclear, according to NNA.
Casualties and Displacement
Over 1 million people in Lebanon have been displaced by the war between Israel and Hezbollah, which began when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel on March 2 in solidarity with Iran, two days after the Iran war started.
At least 3,269 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since the war began, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, with over 9,800 wounded. Netanyahu's office reports at least 23 Israeli soldiers and a defense contractor have been killed in or near southern Lebanon, and two civilians in northern Israel, mostly by drones.
