Israel Launches Deadly Strikes in Lebanon After Accusing Hezbollah of Overnight Attacks

Israel launched deadly new strikes in Lebanon on Tuesday after accusing Hezbollah of launching attacks overnight, even as President Donald Trump said both sides had agreed to de-escalate after Iran threatened to pull out of peace talks.

Trump said Monday night that he had spoken with both sides and that they agreed “all shooting will stop,” while the Lebanese Embassy in Washington said Hezbollah had accepted the terms of a U.S. proposal for a “mutual cessation of attacks” that would also block Israel from attacking Beirut.

ABC News

Lebanese Civil Defense said on its Facebook page that six people were killed in an Israeli strike Monday night in the village of Marwaniyeh in southern Lebanon, and it also said one of its centers in Nabatieh in southern Lebanon was subject to “direct targeting as a result of a hostile Israeli airstrike.”

In Nabatieh, the Lebanese army later reported that two soldiers were wounded after being targeted by an Israeli hostile drone, and the Israeli military told NBC News it had launched at least one strike while targeting what it described as Hezbollah infrastructure.

The same day, U.S. Central Command said it “disabled the vessel by firing a Hellfire missile into the ship’s engine room,” describing the Botswana-flagged tanker as having ignored repeated warnings while heading toward Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil terminal.

As Israel continued to strike southern Lebanon, the BBC said Israel did not strike Beirut following a partial ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah, with Lebanon saying Israeli forces would not bomb the capital in exchange for Hezbollah not attacking Israel.

The BBC also reported that the Lebanese health ministry said four people had been killed and 127 injured when Israeli air strikes hit buildings next to Jabal Amel hospital in the city of Tyre on Monday afternoon, and it quoted Dr Wael Mroueh saying, “The Israeli enemy targets journalists, ambulance workers, medical staff.”

AL

In Washington, the Lebanese Embassy in Washington said Hezbollah accepted the terms of a U.S. proposal for a reciprocal cessation of attacks, while Trump pushed back against reports that peace talks with Iran had stalled, insisting “Fake news reports that the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the U.S.A., stopped speaking a few days ago are false and erroneous.”

The Guardian said Trump had stopped an imminent Israeli strike on Beirut and that he and Netanyahu and Hezbollah representatives agreed that “all shooting will stop,” but it also reported that on Tuesday Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported 30 Israeli strikes across the south.

Axios, as described by Time, reported that Trump scolded Netanyahu in an “expletive-laden” call, and Time quoted Trump’s reported warning that escalation would further isolate Israel, while also noting that Netanyahu said Israeli forces would continue to operate “as planned” in southern Lebanon.

The AP reported that Israeli drone strikes on southern Lebanon on Tuesday killed 11 people, and it said the ongoing hostilities deepened displacement for Lebanon’s conflict-weary population despite Trump’s announcement and a nominal ceasefire that began in April.

AP also said negotiations to extend a ceasefire in the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran were a sticking point because the Islamic Republic wants any such deal to end fighting in Lebanon too, and it reported that Lebanese negotiators would seek a full ceasefire in Washington.

The BBC said the Lebanese health ministry reported 128 paramedics and healthcare workers had been killed and 159 attacks on ambulances and medical facilities over the past three months, and it added that at least 3,468 people had been killed in Lebanon since the start of the war, according to the country’s health ministry.

In the same BBC report, it described the Israeli military issuing a fresh evacuation order for Nabatieh town on Tuesday afternoon and warning residents it was “compelled to act forcefully” against Hezbollah there because of the group’s “violation of the ceasefire agreement.”

NBC News framed the immediate stakes as continuing violence despite de-escalation claims, noting that clashes continued Tuesday morning with Israel launching strikes in Lebanon while the U.S. sought to keep pressure on Iran through sanctions on “Iran’s largest digital asset exchanges and their leadership.”