ISRAELI attacks across Lebanon have killed at least 23 people despite a United States-brokered ceasefire, now in its third week.
In a statement on Saturday, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said an Israeli attack on the town of al-Saksakieh in the southern Sidon district killed at least seven people, including a child, and wounded 15, including three children.
Elsewhere, Israeli attacks killed a Syrian man and his daughter in Nabatieh; three people in Nahrain; three in Saadiyat; another three in Haboush; and one in Mefdoun.
Later, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that one person was killed when an Israeli drone fired a guided missile at a motorcycle near shops along the Toul–Doueir road; and three young men were killed in an air raid on a building in the al-Bayad neighbourhood of Nabatieh.
The attacks come despite last month’s ceasefire that was meant to halt fighting with the armed group Hezbollah. Since April 16, Israeli forces have killed nearly 500 people, bringing the overall death toll since Israel’s invasion and bombardment of Lebanon began on March 2 to more than 2,750 people, according to the Health Ministry.
The Israeli army separately issued new forced displacement orders for several towns as it continued to occupy parts of southern Lebanon, maintaining a buffer zone that prevents the return of hundreds of thousands of displaced people and demolishing houses within it.
Reporting from Tyre, in southern Lebanon, Al Jazeera’s Obaida Hitto, said there were no signs of a ceasefire on the ground as the death toll from Israel’s “violent strikes” throughout the day “keeps rising”.
Later on Saturday, Lebanese state media reported additional air attacks on several towns across southern Lebanon. There was no immediate information about casualties.
The intensified attacks come a day after the US announced it would mediate a second round of negotiations between Israel and Lebanon on May 14 and 15, despite demands by the Lebanese authorities that Israeli forces cease strikes before any talks.
The negotiations in Washington, DC will advance “a comprehensive peace and security agreement that substantively addresses the core concerns of both countries”, the US Department of State said in a statement on Friday.
Also on Friday, Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun received former Ambassador Simon Karam, who is leading the Lebanese delegation for the talks, and provided him with “directives ahead of his trip to Washington”, according to a statement from the Lebanese presidency.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah, which is not included in the US-mediated talks, has continued to attack Israeli positions.
The group said on Saturday it had launched separate artillery shell attacks on Israeli positions in the southern Lebanese towns of Biyyada and Rachaf, as well as a drone attack in the border town of Misgav Am, according to state media. Hezbollah also claimed to have targeted a D9 bulldozer belonging to the Israeli army in al-Abbad town.
Separately, the Israeli army said on Saturday several explosive drones had entered Israeli territory, with some falling inside the country. It added that air defences intercepted multiple projectiles launched towards troops operating in southern Lebanon.
On Friday, drones launched by Hezbollah detonated in northern Israel near the Lebanese border, wounding at least three Israeli soldiers.