Israel breaks ceasefire to strike Lebanon during talks

 The fragile ceasefire in southern Lebanon was broken on Wednesday after Israel launched air strikes in response to what it claimed were Hezbollah violations.

The first Israel Defense Forces (IDF) attacks in weeks killed one and wounded 11, according to Lebanese state media. They took place despite another round of US-sponsored talks in Rome aimed at ending the war.

The Lebanese government is seeking Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon, where the IDF established what it described as a buffer zone of troops, following Hezbollah’s rocket and drone attacks on northern Israel in the early days of the war with Iran.

A pilot programme is taking place whereby the IDF hands over small pockets of territory that have been cleared of Hezbollah to the Lebanese armed forces.

On Wednesday, however, the IDF issued an evacuation warning for the town of al-Mansouri.

“In response to a blatant violation of the ceasefire by the Hezbollah terrorist organisation, the IDF has begun conducting precise strikes in southern Lebanon,” a spokesman later said.

The IDF appeared to suggest that Hezbollah had violated the ceasefire, agreed earlier this year, but did not give details. It also said that civilians approaching al-Mansouri “under the auspices of the Lebanese armed forces” had triggered the response.

This week’s negotiations, which are scheduled to run until Thursday, are the seventh round of Washington-mediated talks this year.

Israel’s response to Hezbollah’s attacks has killed more than 4,300 people and displaced around 800,000.

‘Compelled to act against Hezbollah’

In the first such warning since June, the Israeli military on Wednesday told the residents of Mansouri: “In light of Hezbollah’s violations of the ceasefire agreement, the Israel Defense Forces are compelled to act against it with force.”

The strikes risk incurring the wrath of Donald Trump, who is known to have demanded of Benjamin Netanyahu that the IDF leave southern Lebanon.

The town of Mansouri, located around six miles south of Tyre and 10 kilometres north of Israel, and its surroundings were subjected to several Israeli strikes and artillery shelling in recent weeks despite the ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel that took hold in June.

The town’s municipality told residents on June 22 that they could return, but asked them to avoid the part of the town that fell within Israel’s so-called “security zone” in southern Lebanon.

The “security zone” designates a strip of territory where Israeli forces continue to operate that runs around six miles deep inside southern Lebanon along its border with Israel.

Mr Netanyahu is also openly defying last week’s deal between the Trump-sponsored board of peace and Hamas regarding weapons decommissioning in Gaza.