Deadly Flare-Up in South Lebanon as Talks Go On
A deadly flare-up hit southern Lebanon on Wednesday even as Israel and Lebanon held talks in Rome, with two Israeli soldiers killed by a bomb in a booby-trapped building and at least one Lebanese person killed in an Israeli air strike. Israel said it had carried out “precise strikes” in response to what it called a violation of the ceasefire by Hezbollah, and ordered residents of one area to leave. Lebanon’s health ministry said a dozen people were wounded in the strike on a prayer hall.
The violence underscored how fragile the truce along the border remains, and how easily the Rome negotiations — aimed at disarming Hezbollah and stabilising the frontier — could be blown off course. Israel blamed the group for the bomb that killed its soldiers; Hezbollah, which has denounced the talks as a “humiliation”, has an interest in showing it cannot be sidelined. Each side’s account of the casualties could not be independently verified. With the talks due to run into Thursday, the clashes raised the stakes. Watch whether the violence derails the Rome track.