BEIRUT/OCCUPIED JERUSALEM/PARIS: An Israeli strike killed three Lebanese troops in south Lebanon on Thursday as France hosted a conference to rally support for Lebanese state forces which are seen as vital to any diplomatic resolution of the war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The Lebanese soldiers were killed as they were evacuating wounded people on the outskirts of southern village of Yater, the Lebanese army said.
They were killed at around 4:15am (0115 GMT), a security source said.
There was no immediate comment on the strike from the Israeli military, which has previously said it is not operating against the Lebanese army.
The area is part of the border region pounded by Israel during its month-long aggression against Lebanon.
With more than 2,500 people killed by Israel in Lebanon and over 1 million forced from their homes, according to Lebanese authorities, the Paris conference aims to mobilise both humanitarian aid and support for the Lebanese military.
Armed and trained by the United States, the Lebanese army has little sway on the ground in Hezbollah’s strongholds in southern Lebanon.
Israeli strike kills 13 including child near south Beirut hospital
It recruits from across Lebanon’s myriad sectarian communities and has been seen as a guarantor of the civil peace since the 1975-90 civil war.
Its deployment into the south is a key part of UN Security Council resolution 1701 that ended a 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel.
The Paris meeting is set to reiterate that resolution 1701 should be the basis for a cessation to the current hostilities.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin told his Israeli counterpart on Wednesday that Washington had concerns about strikes against the Lebanese armed forces while urging Israel to take steps to ensure the safety of the Lebanese army and the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, the Pentagon said.
A security source in Lebanon said 13 Lebanese army troops had been killed whilst on active duty since the start of hostilities last year.
Another 16 had been killed whilst at home. Israel has apologised in the past when it has confirmed Lebanese military deaths.
Israel launched its Lebanon offensive with the declared aim of securing the return home of tens of thousands of Israelis who evacuated their homes in northern Israel due to a year of cross-border rocket fire by Hezbollah.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has been on a regional tour to press for an end to fighting in both Gaza and Lebanon, will skip the Paris meeting despite being in London on Friday, instead sending a deputy in his place.
Precision missiles
Israel has dealt heavy blows to Hezbollah, killing its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah along with other top commanders and using airstrikes to pound its strongholds in the south, the Bekaa Valley and Beirut’s southern suburbs.
A firefighter sprayed a hose on a pile of smouldering rubble left by a strike late on Wednesday.
The Israeli military said early on Thursday that its “troops continue their limited, localised, targeted ground raids against the Hezbollah in southern Lebanon”.
The Alma Research and Education Center, an Israeli think tank that specialises in the northern arena with Hezbollah, said 29 civilians have been killed in Israel so far as a result of Hezbollah attacks over the last year.
Israeli strike kills 28 people sheltering in a school in central Gaza
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) says 52 soldiers have been killed in Israel and southern Lebanon.
At least 25 have been killed since the start of the ground operation three weeks ago. Hezbollah on Wednesday indicated it had escalated its rocket fire into Israel, saying it had fired precision guided missiles for the first time.
The Israeli military said four projectiles were identified as having been fired from Lebanon, two were intercepted and two fell to the ground.
Israeli airstrikes pounded the southern Beirut suburbs on Wednesday evening, sending thick columns of flames shooting into the night sky one after the other, shortly after an Israeli military spokesman issued evacuation warnings for the area.
Another strike came with no warning, hitting the nearby office of pro-Iran broadcaster Al-Mayadeen, the station said.
It said the office had been empty since the conflict began. Lebanon’s health ministry said one person was killed and five others, including a child, were wounded.
Hezbollah opened fire on Oct.ober 8, 2023, declaring solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza following the Hamas-led attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 people in Israel and led to the abduction of another 250, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, Israel’s aggression in Gaza has killed more than 42,000 people, health authorities in Gaza say, laying waste to much of the territory.
The Israeli military named on Wednesday six Palestinian Al Jazeera reporters in Gaza who it said were also members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad groups, an allegation the Qatari network rejected as an attempt to silence journalists.
Antony Blinken heads to Hamas mediator Qatar on Gaza truce push
The Committee to Protect Journalists’ Middle East programme said on X that the allegations amounted to smearing Palestinian journalists “with unsubstantiated ‘terrorist’ labels”.
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