ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - At least 18 people have been killed and more than 30 others injured in new Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon on Friday, Beirut’s health ministry reported, as the Israeli military has also confirmed that four of its soldiers were killed on the Lebanese front and several others injured.
The escalation comes despite the US-Iran agreement establishing a ceasefire between the two sides and their respective allies on “all fronts,” including Lebanon.
The Emergency Operations Center, an affiliate of Lebanon’s health ministry, said in a statement that “heavy Israeli airstrikes that have persisted since midnight [on Friday] until this morning” have left “18 martyrs and 33 injured.”
The ongoing strikes “are preventing the evacuation of the martyrs and the wounded,” the statement added.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military reported that four soldiers had “fallen in combat,” including a lieutenant colonel, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP), adding in a separate statement that five other soldiers were injured, one of them seriously, in a drone attack launched by the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement in Lebanon.
Against that backdrop, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said in a statement on X on Friday that “all of Lebanon must burn.”
He added, “With all due respect to the Americans, Israel must make it clear to the entire world that the blood of our sons and the security of our citizens are not forfeit,” noting that “our supreme duty is to protect the citizens of Israel and the [Israeli Defence Forces] IDF soldiers.”
The latest flare-up comes a day after US President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding establishing that the US, Iran, and “their allies in the current war” agree to “declare the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon.”
It also states a commitment “not to initiate any war or military operations against each other and to refrain from the threat or use of force” and “to ensure the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon.”
Of note, France on Friday urged Israel to “respect” the US-Iran agreement to end the regional war.
“This agreement provides for a cessation of hostilities, the Israeli government must respect it, and the United States in particular must exert all the necessary pressure on the Israeli government to ensure that this is the case," French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said, according to AFP.
Moreover, the escalation coincides with the postponement of high-level talks between American and Iranian officials, which were scheduled to take place in Switzerland on Friday but were abruptly delayed.
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