BEIRUT/JERUSALEM, May 18 – Israel carried out airstrikes in southern Lebanon on Monday, while Hezbollah announced new attacks on Israeli forces, continuing the war despite the extension of a U.S.-backed truce.
Hostilities between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel, reignited by the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, have persisted since U.S. President Donald Trump first announced a ceasefire on April 16, with fighting mostly contained to southern Lebanon.
A 45-day ceasefire extension, announced after a third round of U.S.-hosted talks between Lebanon and Israel on Friday, began at midnight, a Lebanese official said.
The U.S.-led mediation has emerged in parallel to diplomacy aimed at ending the U.S.-Iran conflict. Iran has said ending Israel’s war in Lebanon is one of its demands for a deal over the wider conflict. Hezbollah objects to Beirut’s talks with Israel.
Airstrikes and Explosive Drone
Overnight, an Israeli strike near Baalbeck killed a commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, a Hezbollah ally, along with his daughter. The Israeli military said it killed the commander, Wael Mahmoud Abd al-Halim, but made no mention of his daughter.
Hezbollah said it launched an explosive drone at an Iron Dome air defense position in the Galilee area of northern Israel and carried out other attacks on Israeli forces in Lebanon.
Israel’s military said some "launches" aimed at Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon, as well as an explosive drone, had crossed into Israeli territory. Lebanon’s National News Agency reported Israeli airstrikes on more than half a dozen locations in south Lebanon.
The Israeli military said earlier it had struck more than 30 Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon in the previous 24 hours and warned residents of three villages in the south to leave their homes.
Death Toll Rises
Israeli forces have occupied a self-declared security zone in the south, razing villages, saying they aim to shield northern Israel from Hezbollah fighters embedded in civilian areas.
Lebanon’s health ministry reported the death toll in Lebanon had risen to 2,988 since the war erupted on March 2, among them 613 women, children and healthcare workers. The toll does not say how many combatants are among the dead.
Sources familiar with Hezbollah’s casualty numbers have said many Hezbollah fighters killed are not included in the health ministry death toll. Reuters reported on May 4 that several thousand Hezbollah fighters had been killed, citing casualty estimates from within the group. Hezbollah denied this.
Israeli authorities say 18 soldiers have been killed by Hezbollah attacks or while operating in south Lebanon since March 2, and two civilians in northern Israel.
