Israeli attacks kill at least 7 in Lebanon despite ‘ceasefire’ extension

Beirut, Lebanon – Israeli attacks across Lebanon have killed at least seven people despite a United States-backed ceasefire extension.

The attacks on Monday came three days after Lebanese and Israeli officials held talks in Washington DC, which resulted in an agreement to extend their ceasefire for another 45 days. Israel has repeatedly violated the truce, which was initially agreed in April.

Those killed on Monday included Wael Abdel Halim, a leader in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, and his 17-year-old daughter, Rama, who died when an Israeli air strike targeted an apartment building in the town of Douris in eastern Lebanon’s Baalbek district, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.

In the Jalil refugee camp for Palestinians on the outskirts of Baalbek, dozens of mourners marched through the camp after the attack.

Israeli strikes also continued across southern Lebanon with attacks reported in Hanaway, Dibal, Deir Ammar, Deir Amess and Meirka in the Tyre district, according to Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondents on the ground. Additional strikes were reported in Harouf and other areas across the south.

Continued hostilities

Last week’s negotiations to extend the ceasefire marked the third round of US-mediated talks, which kicked off with the first direct meeting between Lebanese and Israeli representatives in decades.

Under the agreement, a US-facilitated security track is expected to begin on May 29 with another round of talks scheduled for June 2 and 3 in Washington, DC.

However, the renewed diplomacy has done little to prevent Israeli hostilities that its military insisted are aimed at Hezbollah, which is publicly opposed to negotiations with Israel.

Israeli forces have persistently bombed southern Lebanon and continued to maintain positions in the area while the Lebanon-based armed group also remains actively engaged in the conflict.

Hezbollah said on Monday that it had targeted an Israeli bulldozer with a drone near Deir Siryan and struck an Israeli military communications drone in the same area. The armed group also said it fired missiles at a gathering of Israeli soldiers and military vehicles in Rashaf in southern Lebanon.

The hostilities continue to afflict Lebanon’s civilian population. On Monday, the Israeli military ordered residents of the southern Lebanese villages of Harouf, Borj El Chmali and Debaal to leave their homes before planned attacks.

Army instructions to civilians to move into open areas before the strikes have become increasingly common, essentially taking the form of forced displacement.