DUBAI: Israeli gunfire killed two people in southern Lebanon on Tuesday (Jun 23), Lebanon’s Civil Defence and health ministry said, prompting Iran-backed Hezbollah to accuse Israel of violating a ceasefire that has largely held since Sunday.
The deaths came as the US and Iran were wrapping up a first round of talks on a deal paving the way for a permanent settlement of the Middle East war, with Tehran tying the success of the accord to halting the parallel conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Two men were killed when Israeli soldiers “opened fire with their machine guns in their direction while they were standing near an excavator that was unblocking a road” in a town near the city of Nabatieh, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) said, updating an initial toll of one dead and two wounded.
In the town of Hadatha, closer to the Israeli border, several residents also came under fire on their way to the local cemetery, NNA reported, without mentioning any casualties.
Hezbollah criticised what it called a “blatant” violation of the truce in Lebanon after the Israeli gunfire, confirming two people had been killed in what it called a “treacherous attack”.
The Israeli military said separately on Tuesday that it had struck “armed terrorists who posed an immediate threat to IDF troops operating” in what it describes as a “security zone” it has established in southern Lebanon.
“The IDF will continue to operate to remove immediate threats and will not allow the Hezbollah terrorist organisation to harm Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers,” it said.
Deadly clashes between Israel and Hezbollah on Friday and Saturday had rattled the fledgling deal, which provides for a cessation of hostilities on all fronts, including Lebanon.
But there has been a lull in the fighting since Saturday evening, with a spokesman for the UN secretary-general saying Sunday was the first day since the conflict began in early March that peacekeepers in Lebanon reported observing no projectile launches or interceptions.
Still, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Monday that Israeli forces retained “full freedom of action to thwart any direct or developing threat to them or to the residents of the North”.
Israel and Lebanon, which do not have formal diplomatic relations, have been pursuing direct negotiations in Washington in recent weeks, with a fifth round scheduled for Tuesday.
