BEIRUT
\nIsraeli raids hit south Lebanon on Thursday as Israel\u2019s military said it was striking Hezbollah targets, a day after Lebanese and Israeli civilian representatives held their first direct talks in decades.
\nDespite a November 2024 ceasefire that was supposed to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group, Israel has kept up strikes on Lebanon and has also maintained troops in five south Lebanon areas it deems strategic.
\nThe visit from Sunday to Tuesday of Pope Leo XIV had provided Lebanon with a window of reprieve from Israeli air strikes, which had intensified in recent weeks, and the pontiff urged an end to hostilities during his visit. But on Thursday, the Israeli army said it \u201cbegan conducting strikes on Hezbollah terror targets in southern Lebanon,\u201d after warning it would strike buildings in south Lebanon\u2019s Mahrouna and Jbaa. It subsequently issued warnings it would strike further Hezbollah \u201cmilitary infrastructure\u201d in Majadal and Baraasheet, also in the south.
\nLebanon\u2019s official National News Agency said \u201cIsraeli warplanes launched a strike on the town of Mahrouna\u201d while other raids targeted buildings in Jbaa, Majadal and Baraasheet. An AFP photographer saw smoke rising from the site of the strike in the town of Jbaa.
\nLebanon\u2019s government has committed to disarming Hezbollah but the group has rejected the idea and many in the country fear a return to expanded Israeli military operations.
\n\u2018Not yet at peace talks\u2019
\nLebanese and Israeli civilian representatives held surprise talks Wednesday under the auspices of the ceasefire monitoring mechanism at the UN peacekeeping force\u2019s headquarters in Lebanon\u2019s Naqura near the border with Israel.
\nRepresentatives of the ceasefire monitoring committee \u2014 the United States, France, Lebanon, Israel and the UN force \u2014 regularly convene in Naqura.
\nLebanon and Israel have technically been at war since 1948, and Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam cautioned the new diplomatic contact did not amount to broader peace discussions.
\nThe United States has been piling pressure on Lebanon to rapidly disarm Hezbollah, and has pushed for direct talks between the two neighbors.
\nIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s office said the atmosphere at the talks was \u201cpositive,\u201d and that there had been agreement \u201cto develop ideas to promote potential economic cooperation between Israel and Lebanon.\u201d
\nIsrael also made it clear it was \u201cessential\u201d that Lebanese militant group Hezbollah disarm regardless of any progress in economic cooperation, the premier\u2019s office added.
\nSalam said the new discussions were strictly limited to fully implementing last year\u2019s truce.
\n\u201cWe are not yet at peace talks,\u201d he told journalists, including AFP, on Wednesday.
\nHe said the talks only sought \u201cthe cessation of hostilities,\u201d the \u201crelease of Lebanese hostages\u201d and \u201cthe complete Israeli withdrawal\u201d from Lebanon.
\nUntil now, Israel and Lebanon, which have no formal diplomatic relations, have insisted on limiting participation in the ceasefire mechanism to military officers.
\nThe US embassy in Beirut said US envoy Morgan Ortagus also attended.
\nOrtagus was in Jerusalem a day earlier and met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BEIRUT Israeli raids hit south Lebanon on Thursday as Israel\u2019s military said it was striking Hezbollah targets, a day after Lebanese and Israeli civilian representatives held their first direct talks in decades. Despite a November 2024 ceasefire that was supposed to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":90617,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90605"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90618,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90605\/revisions\/90618"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}