War in the Middle East: the Lebanese army announces the death of several soldiers, including an officer, in an Israeli strike

Lebanese soldiers and an officer were killed by Israel. On Saturday, the Lebanese army announced the death of several of its members in an Israeli strike in the south of the country. “Several soldiers, including an officer,” were killed “in a brutal Israeli attack,” the army said in a statement.

The strike targeted a military vehicle on the road between Khardali and Nabatiyé. Asked by AFP, the Israeli army indicated that it was verifying this information.

On Wednesday, at the end of a fourth session of negotiations between Lebanon and Israel in Washington, a new ceasefire agreement was announced, the truce in force from April 17 having never been respected. The agreement provides for a ceasefire conditional on a “complete cessation” of Hezbollah fire and a continuation at this stage of fire and operations by the Israeli army in southern Lebanon.

But Hezbollah rejected this agreement, like the previous one. In a thunderous statement, the leader of the Shiite movement supported by Iran, Naim Qassem, on Friday described the discussions between Beirut and Tel Aviv as “absurd, humiliating and shameful for Lebanon”.

Israeli operations continue in Lebanon

On Friday, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun urged Iran to no longer intervene in Lebanon, whose population is caught in a vice between the Israeli army and the pro-Iranian movement. “It is not your country, it is ours. (…) You do not have to intervene in our country,” he said. hammered. President Emmanuel Macron supported the ceasefire.

On the ground, clashes continue. The Israeli army again called on Saturday for the evacuation of five villages in southern and eastern Lebanon in anticipation of strikes against Hezbollah. “You must immediately evacuate your homes and move north of the Zahrani River,” Avichay Adraee, an Arabic-speaking military spokesperson, said on his Telegram account.

Hezbollah relaunched hostilities with Israel at the beginning of March, targeting Israeli soil to avenge the death of Iranian supreme guide Ali Khamenei in the Israeli-American offensive on Tehran.

Israeli strikes on Lebanon have left more than 3,560 dead since the start of the war, according to the authorities’ latest report. On the Israeli side, 27 soldiers and a civilian contractor were killed in Lebanon, according to the army.