Three killed in latest Israeli attacks on Lebanon

BEIRUT: Israeli warplanes launched a series of airstrikes on Lebanon starting at dawn on Saturday, killing three people, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported.

A residential building in the town of Mefdoun in the southern governorate of Nabatieh was targeted and destroyed during the attacks.

The Israeli army also destroyed several residential buildings on Martyr Sabra Street and in the Maqam neighbourhood.

The town of Jebchit also came under an airstrike that targeted a private electricity generator complex, destroying it and setting it on fire.

Israel has carried out an expanded offensive in southern Lebanon since a cross-border attack by Hezbollah on March 2, despite a ceasefire that took effect in November 2024.

Earlier, a US State Department official told Anadolu that the US will host direct talks between Israel and Lebanon next week as part of ongoing ceasefire negotiations.

The talks come after US President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a two-week ceasefire with Iran following Pakistani mediation.

A Lebanese official also confirmed the next week’s talks in a statement to Anadolu, but said the meeting is a “preparatory and not a negotiation.”

Israeli airstrikes killed at least 28 people across Lebanon on Friday, including eight security personnel, according to the Health Ministry and the state-run news agency NNA.

In Nabatieh, strikes near a government complex and a State Security office caused extensive destruction, killing 13 security personnel.

According to Al Jazeera, the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah said fighters targeted Israeli troops at the Kiryat Shmona settlement in northern Israel with missiles and drones.

Hezbollah also said barracks in Ya’ara were targeted by rockets.

Continued strikes in Lebanon:  According to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency, Israeli warplanes targeted a power station in the southern Lebanese town of Jibchit at dawn on Saturday.

Iran’s Press TV reported an Israeli airstrike targeted the vicinity of the government hospital in the town of Tibnin, southern Lebanon.

Israeli and Lebanese officials will hold talks in Washington on Tuesday, both sides said, amid conflicting accounts on what those talks would cover.

Lebanon’s presidency said officials from the two countries had held a phone call on Friday and agreed to discuss announcing a ceasefire and setting a start date for bilateral talks under US mediation.

But Israel’s embassy in Washington said the talks would constitute the start of “formal peace negotiations” and that Israel had refused to discuss a ceasefire with Hezbollah.

Tehran’s agenda at the Islamabad talks also includes demands for major new concessions, including the end of sanctions that crippled its economy for years, and acknowledgement of its authority over the Strait of Hormuz, where it aims to collect transit fees and control access in what would amount to a huge shift in regional power.

Iran’s ships were sailing through the strait unimpeded on Friday, while those of other countries remained hemmed inside.

Disruption to energy supplies has fed inflation and slowed the global economy, with an impact expected to last for months even if negotiators succeed in reopening the strait.

The hard line taken by Iran’s leaders ahead of the negotiations followed a defiant message from the country’s new Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, on Thursday.

Khamenei, yet to be seen in public and said to be suffering from severe facial and leg injuries sustained in the attack that killed his father, said Iran would demand compensation for all wartime damage. “We will certainly not leave unpunished the criminal aggressors who attacked our country,” he said. Monitoring Desk