Conflict in the Middle East | At least 37 injured in Israeli strikes in Lebanon

(Beirut) Israeli strikes injured at least 37 people on Friday in southern Lebanon, according to the Health Ministry, on the second day of negotiations in Washington to try to end hostilities between Israel and pro-Iranian Hezbollah.

The UN humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon, Imran Riza, spoke of a “unique opportunity” to end the war, at a time when Israeli strikes are killing an “unacceptable” number of civilians.

Despite the entry into force of a ceasefire on April 17, which expires on Sunday, Israel continues its strikes in Lebanon, saying it is targeting Hezbollah, and the Shiite movement continues to fire its rockets at Israeli positions.

The Israeli army, which issued evacuation orders on Friday for around ten sectors in southern Lebanon, announced “to carry out strikes against Hezbollah infrastructure in the Tyre region”.

An AFP journalist reported a series of strikes, two of which targeted the city’s surroundings. One targeted an association center near a hospital, said the National Information Agency (Ani, official).

“Women and children”

“There are only women, children and the elderly here. This strike is causing new displacements of people,” Hafez Ramadan, who lives near the building targeted by the strike, and which according to him mainly sheltered displaced people, told AFP.

The strikes in Tire left 37 injured, including six hospital medical staff, four children and nine women, according to the Health Ministry.

Ani reported other bombings in southern locations that were not included in the evacuation orders.

For its part, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a drone attack against a barracks in Nahariya, in northern Israel, as well as others against Israeli forces positioned in several Lebanese border localities. The Israeli army is deployed in this area to be able, according to it, to protect the population of northern Israel from fire from the pro-Iranian movement.

In a press release, Israel announced on Friday that it had killed more than 220 Hezbollah fighters during the past week and struck hundreds of targets. She also announced that one of her soldiers had been killed in southern Lebanon.

This death brings to 20 the number of Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon since March 2, when the Shiite movement opened hostilities against Israel, in response to the Israeli-American attack against Iran.

“The Plot”

Since the start of the war, at least 2,951 people have been killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon, according to Lebanese authorities. Among them, more than 400 people have died since the start of the truce, according to an AFP count based on official figures.

Israeli and Lebanese representatives resumed their talks in Washington on Friday, diplomats reported, the day after a first day of “positive” discussions, according to a senior American official.

Neither Israel nor Lebanon has officially commented on these discussions.

This is the third session of direct discussions between representatives of the two countries, which do not maintain diplomatic relations.

Lebanon hopes to obtain a further extension of the ceasefire and an Israeli commitment to end hostilities. Israel, like the United States, calls on Beirut to disarm Hezbollah.

The pro-Iranian movement, for its part, refuses these negotiations and the examination of the question of its disarmament.

They denounced the “humiliating” negotiations, Mahmoud Qomati, un haut responsable du Hezbollah, a dénoncé vendredi « un complot contre le pays ». Â