Israel launches airstrikes in Lebanon after another ceasefire is announced, killing 4

BEIRUT (AP) — Hezbollah on Thursday rejected the latest ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Lebanese government, with the militant group demanding a full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon as ongoing fighting there hampers efforts to end the situation there. Iran is.

Hezbollah’s announcement came as Israeli attacks killed at least four people and a United Nations peacekeeper was killed in the crossfire, according to local authorities.

Hezbollah leader Naeem Qasim said in a written statement read on television that the agreement requires Hezbollah fighters to leave southern Lebanon under fire, which would mean “surrender, defeat and the achievement of the enemy’s goals.”

“We are concerned with an end to the aggression, a ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal,” he said, stressing that Hezbollah had not made any commitment to stop the fighting. “North Israel will not be safe as long as our villages are unsafe, bombed and destroyed, and our people killed,” he said.

Qassem called the talks “ridiculous, humiliating and insulting” and were aimed at giving Israel control of something it could not seize through war.

Fighting continues in Lebanon, Israeli troops occupy area large areas of the southan effort that threatens to end iran is and reopen Strait of Hormuzan important transfer station for oil and natural gas. its closure has shook the world economy.

Iran has demanded that any lasting truce be extended to Lebanon. israeli prime minister Benjamin NetanyahuFacing elections later this year, he wants to press ahead with Israel’s offensive until Hezbollah no longer poses a threat.

President of the United States Donald Trumpwho faces A rare rebuke from Congress On Wednesday, Trump sought to downplay the diplomatic standoff and the failure to declare a ceasefire to end the fighting. He told reporters that in the Middle East, “a ceasefire is about shooting in a softer way.”

A mortar hit a site near Marjayoun, killing one Serbian peacekeeper and injuring two others, according to the United Nations Forces in UNIFIL and the Serbian Defense Ministry. Fierce fighting took place in Marjayoun, a majority-Christian town.

Neither side said whether the mortar fire came from Israel or Hezbollah.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the drone strike killed a motorcyclist and injured four others in the village of Maroub. According to reports, an airstrike on the village of Somor in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon killed three people and injured many others. It also reported airstrikes in other parts of the south.

The Israeli military, which had no immediate comment, warned people not to enter parts of southern Lebanon and said it was attacking Hezbollah facilities there.

Hezbollah’s resumption of rocket launches comes days after Israel and the United States launched a surprise attack on Iran, which supports Hezbollah, on February 28. Prior to this, despite an earlier ceasefire agreement in 2024, Israel continued to carry out regular attacks on what it called armed targets in Lebanon, often killing civilians.

Israeli military chief of staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir acknowledged Thursday that the ongoing war is putting pressure on northern Israeli towns living under the threat of Hezbollah fire. He said Israel’s actions in Iran and Lebanon “created a new security reality” that weakened Iran and Hezbollah to “unprecedented levels.”

After renewed rocket and drone attacks by Hezbollah, Israeli forces have seized about a fifth of Lebanon, pushing deeper into the country’s south than at any time since the end of Israel’s 1982-2000 occupation.

In the southern city of Sidon, residents were skeptical of Wednesday’s ceasefire announcement, saying previous agreements had failed to stem the violence.

“Every few days a ceasefire is announced, but people keep being killed,” Mayada Hijazi said.

“It’s just talk, no action,” Salah Nasab said. “We kept coming home and then being displaced again, back and forth. We were very tired.”

More than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon and more than 1.2 million have been displaced. The fighting has killed 27 Israeli soldiers and 3 civilians.

The recently announced ceasefire was reached through U.S.-brokered talks between Israel and the Lebanese government, which accuses Hezbollah of dragging Lebanon into the war and worked to disarm Lebanon ahead of the latest hostilities.

The ceasefire agreement requires the Lebanese Armed Forces to control safe zones in Lebanon and prohibit militants from entering.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Thursday called the new agreement “the last chance to achieve a final and comprehensive ceasefire.” He said Lebanon was ready to implement Wednesday’s agreement once it received a response from relevant Lebanese factions, including Hezbollah. Aoun told reporters on Thursday that the United States and Trump himself would decide how and when the deal would be implemented.

The agreement calls Hezbollah an “enemy” of Israel, the United States and Lebanon and calls for its disbandment. The government has pledged to do so in the past but lacks the ability to disarm Hezbollah through force.

The latest agreement does not specify when Israel will withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon, but says the United States will support the Lebanese army’s efforts to control areas where Hezbollah has long held power.

Iran’s top general on Thursday reiterated Tehran’s demand for a comprehensive ceasefire in Lebanon and called on Israel to withdraw its troops to positions at the start of the wider war. At the time, Israel occupied five strategic locations along the border.

“Supporting the Lebanese resistance is the responsibility of all of us, and eliminating Israel from the region is an achievable goal for Muslims,” ​​Esmail Qaani, head of the elite Quds Force of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guards, was quoted by the semi-official Fars and Tasnim news agencies as saying.

As diplomatic efforts have repeatedly been thwarted, Iran and the U.S. firefight and around the Strait of Hormuz, which remains effectively closed. Before the war, about a fifth of the world’s oil and gas, as well as large quantities of fertilizers and other goods, passed through the narrow waterway.

The United States has targeted what it calls Iranian threats to commercial shipping and its own military, while Iran has launched missile and drone attacks on Gulf states where U.S. troops are stationed.

___ Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank. Associated Press correspondent Malak Harb in Beirut contributed.