BEIRUT, Lebanon: Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes killed two people in the country’s south on Wednesday, with Hezbollah announcing the deaths of two of its fighters, the latest cross-border violence amid fears of a full-blown regional war.
Hezbollah has traded near daily fire with the Israeli army since the Palestinian militant group Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war.
Ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel are set to resume on Thursday in Qatar, with top diplomats scrambling to avert wider conflict after Iran and Hezbollah vowed revenge for recent high-profile killings.
The Lebanese health ministry said in a statement that an “Israeli enemy” strike on the southern town of Marjayoun killed one person and wounded nine others, revising downwards a previous death toll of three.
The official National News Agency said an “enemy drone targeted a car” in the town square, a usually busy area home to shops.
The health ministry also said one person was killed and another wounded in an Israeli strike in south Lebanon’s Blida village.
The Israeli military said in a statement that its air force had “struck Hezbollah military structures” including in the Blida area.
It later added that Israeli aircraft “eliminated two Hezbollah terrorists” in the Marjayoun area. Hezbollah also announced on Wednesday evening the death of two of its fighters in Israeli fire.
Lebanon’s health ministry earlier reported that an “Israeli enemy” strike in Abbassiyeh, near the southern city of Tyre, wounded 17 people, including two teenagers and an eight-year-old girl, with four people in “critical” condition.
Hezbollah said it launched “volleys of Katyusha rockets” at the city of Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel in response to the Abbassiyeh strike.
The Israeli army said “a number of projectiles” from Lebanon fell in an “open area” without causing injuries.
The Iran-backed group claimed a number of other attacks on Israeli troops and positions on Wednesday, including with “explosive-laden drones.”
The violence since October has killed some 570 people in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also including at least 118 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, 22 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed, according to army figures.
As part of efforts to de-escalate the situation, French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne is set to visit Beirut on Thursday, diplomatic sources said, on the heels of a visit Wednesday by US envoy Amos Hochstein.
Lebanon says two killed in Israeli strikes
https://arab.news/m9gav
Lebanon says two killed in Israeli strikes
- Ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel are set to resume on Thursday in Qatar, with top diplomats scrambling to avert wider conflict after Iran and Hezbollah vowed revenge for recent high-profile killings
Israel’s hostage forum releases AI-generated video of last Gaza captive
- The Gaza ceasefire, which came into effect in October, remains fragile with both sides alleging violations, and mediators fearing that Israel and Hamas alike are stalling
JERUSALEM: An Israeli group representing the families of Gaza hostages released on Tuesday an AI-generated video of Ran Gvili, the last captive whose body is still being held in the Palestinian territory.
The one-minute clip, created whole cloth using artificial intelligence, purports to depict Gvili as he sits in a Gaza tunnel and appeals to US President Donald Trump to help bring his body back to Israel.
“Mr President, I’m asking you to see this through: Please bring me home. My family deserves this. I deserve the right to be buried with honor in the land I fought for,” says the AI-generated image of Gvili.
Gvili was 24 at the time of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
He was an officer in Israel’s Yasam elite police unit and was on medical leave when he learnt of the attack.
He decided to leave his home and brought his gun to counter the Hamas militants.
He was shot in the fighting at the Alumim kibbutz before he was taken to Gaza.
Israeli authorities told Gvili’s parents in January 2024 that he had not survived his injuries.
The AI clip was released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main group representing those taken captive to Gaza.
The Forum said it was published with the approval of Gvili’s family.
“Seeing and hearing Rani speak in his own voice is both moving and heartbreaking. I would give anything to hear, see and hold him again,” Gvili’s mother Talik said, quoted by the Forum.
“But all I can do now is plead that they don’t move to the next phase of the agreement before bringing Rani home — because we don’t leave heroes behind.”
The Gaza ceasefire, which came into effect in October, remains fragile with both sides alleging violations, and mediators fearing that Israel and Hamas alike are stalling.
In the first stage, Palestinian militants were expected to return all of the remaining 48 living and dead hostages held in Gaza.
Since the ceasefire came into effect on October 10, militants have released 47 hostages.
In the next stages of the truce, Israel is supposed to withdraw from its positions in Gaza, an interim authority is to govern the Palestinian territory instead of Hamas, and an international stabilization force is to be deployed.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet Trump in Florida later this month to discuss the second phase of the deal.
