Israel and Hezbollah continue attacks after Israel-Lebanon talks in US

Fighting between Israeli forces and the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah has continued after Israel and Lebanon held direct talks in Washington aimed at easing the conflict.

On Wednesday, Israeli strikes hit two vehicles on the coastal highway south of Beirut, near the towns of Saadiyat and Jiyeh and outside Hezbollah's traditional strongholds.

Videos from one scene showed a burned-out van, with first responders working to extinguish the flames and recover human remains. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

In northern Israel, a man was wounded in the town of Tamra after Hezbollah launched about 30 rockets across the border, according to medics and the military.

Hezbollah said it had launched rockets at 10 locations in northern Israel.

The Israeli military also said Israeli troops were continuing ground operations in southern Lebanon and that more than 200 Hezbollah infrastructure sites there, including rocket launchers, had been struck over the past 24 hours.

And it renewed calls for residents across a large part of southern Lebanon to evacuate amid the ongoing air and artillery bombardment.

Although Israel has avoided striking Beirut itself since its wave of attacks across the country a week ago, which Lebanese authorities say killed more than 350 people in only 10 minutes, it has continued to strike southern and eastern areas.

Israel has announced that it plans to create what it has described as a security buffer zone extending eight to 10km (five to six miles) inside Lebanese territory, saying the move is necessary to protect Israeli communities from Hezbollah attacks.

In the early hours of Wednesday, clashes were reported in several Lebanese border towns and villages, including Khiam and Bint Jbeil, with heavy gunfire and explosions heard throughout the night.

The fighting has continued despite a ceasefire between the US and Iran, which Israel has said does not apply to its campaign in Lebanon.

On Tuesday, a meeting in Washington brought Lebanese and Israeli representatives together for the first direct, high-level contact in three decades between the two countries, which remain formally at war.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who mediated the discussions between Israeli ambassador Yechiel Leiter and Lebanese ambassador Nada Moawad, framed them as a pivotal moment.

"This is a historic opportunity," he said, flanked by US, Israeli and Lebanese flags, acknowledging the "decades of history" behind the conflict.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun voiced cautious optimism, saying he hoped the negotiations would "mark the beginning of the end of the suffering of the Lebanese people."

Israeli officials, meanwhile, described the negotiations as part of a longer-term strategy against Hezbollah.

Leiter said the meeting with Moawad had led him to believe Israel and Lebanon were "on the same side of the equation", calling the negotiations the beginning of a "battle against Hezbollah".

But no ceasefire was announced at the meeting, and the diplomatic move has exposed deep divisions within Lebanon.

Hezbollah strongly rejected the negotiations. One of its MPs, Hassan Fadlallah, warned on Wednesday that a rift in Lebanon could widen over the government's decision to negotiate with Israel, urging authorities to reconsider.

He said the group wanted a comprehensive ceasefire, not a return to the near-daily Israeli strikes and assassinations seen after the November 2024 ceasefire deal, which ended more than a year of conflict.

Meanwhile, the humanitarian crisis across Lebanon continues to deepen.

Lebanese authorities say that since fighting resumed on 2 March, after a Hezbollah attack on Israel, Israeli attacks have killed at least 2,124 people across Lebanon, including 254 women and 168 children, and displaced more than one million others.

Twelve Israeli soldiers and two civilians have been killed by Hezbollah over the same period, Israeli authorities say.