Overnight strikes on Burj al-Shemali, Mansouri and Majdalzoun wound 8 people
The Israeli army launched strikes overnight into Thursday on Burj al-Shemali, Mansouri and Majdalzoun, wounding four people.
Artillery shelling also targeted the areas of Mansouri, Majdalzoun and Haddatha, the National News Agency said, while troops detonated houses and buildings in Zawtar al-Sharqiyeh.
The escalation comes after two Israeli soldiers were killed in an explosion in southern Lebanon in the first Israeli deaths since the implementation of a shaky truce between Israel and Hezbollah in June.
The Israeli military said Thursday that four other soldiers were seriously wounded. The deaths had been reported by Israeli media a day earlier. An Israeli military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with the army's policy, said that "an explosion was detonated" when the soldiers entered a site in the village of Majdalzoun and that the nature of the explosive was under review.
There was no immediate statement from Hezbollah.
A strike Wednesday on Tebnine killed one person and wounded 12, after Israel issued a call for residents of the village of al-Mansouri to flee — the first such warning Israel has issued in Lebanon for weeks.
The Israeli army said it began striking south Lebanon in response to what it described as Hezbollah's violation of the ceasefire.
Meanwhile in Rome, Lebanese and Israeli negotiators met to discuss implementation of a June 26 deal under which Israeli forces are supposed to withdraw from areas they occupy in southern Lebanon and allow the Lebanese army to take control, in exchange for Hezbollah's disarmament.
Wednesday's talks ended early due to the escalation on the ground. The talks were set to resume Thursday.
A shaky truce between Israel and Hezbollah has largely held since June 20, but Israeli forces have continued to occupy swaths of southern Lebanon and to carry out periodic airstrikes and shelling inside the Israeli-declared Yellow Zone.
The talks in Rome have focused on implementation of "pilot zones" where Israeli forces would withdraw and the Lebanese army would take control. Implementation began last month with an initial pilot zone in an area that wasn't occupied by Israeli forces but had previously sustained Israeli fire.
The Lebanese army entered the town of Zawtar al-Gharbieh and some civilians returned, although many came only to find their homes destroyed and left again.
A diplomat familiar with the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly said earlier this week that Lebanon had asked for the new pilot zone to be either in the town of Khiam or Bint Jbeil. Both areas saw heavy fighting in the latest Israel-Hezbollah war and are currently occupied by Israeli forces.
But U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa suggested ahead of the three-day talks that no new pilot zones would be immediately implemented, saying that "moving too quickly risks jeopardizing the very civilians this process is meant to protect."