Lebanon attacks strain ceasefire before talks

At least four people killed in Israeli strikes

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM:

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 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.

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.