Hezbollah Says Two Fighters Killed in Israeli Strike

29 July 2024, Lebanon, Qlayaa: Heavy smoke billow from the Lebanese southern border village of Kfar Kila after it was targeted by Israeli shelling. (dpa)
29 July 2024, Lebanon, Qlayaa: Heavy smoke billow from the Lebanese southern border village of Kfar Kila after it was targeted by Israeli shelling. (dpa)
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Hezbollah Says Two Fighters Killed in Israeli Strike

29 July 2024, Lebanon, Qlayaa: Heavy smoke billow from the Lebanese southern border village of Kfar Kila after it was targeted by Israeli shelling. (dpa)
29 July 2024, Lebanon, Qlayaa: Heavy smoke billow from the Lebanese southern border village of Kfar Kila after it was targeted by Israeli shelling. (dpa)

Lebanon's Hezbollah movement said an Israeli air strike on Sunday killed two fighters from the Iran-backed group, with the health ministry reporting another death from an attack days ago.

Hezbollah has traded near-daily fire with Israel in support of its ally Hamas since the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attack on Israel triggered war in Gaza.

A strike on Beirut's southern suburbs late last month killed Hezbollah's top military commander, Fuad Shukr, just hours before the assassination, blamed on Israel, of Hamas's political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

The Lebanese health ministry said Sunday an "Israeli strike that targeted the village of Taybeh today left two dead."

Hezbollah confirmed they were group fighters, killed in Taybeh near the border with Israel, AFP reported.

The Israeli military said it had "struck throughout the day several Hezbollah military structures in the area of Adaisseh", which is next to Taybeh.

According to the health ministry, at least one Lebanese and 11 Syrians were wounded, two seriously, in an Israeli strike on Maaroub, near Derdghaiya.

Separately, the health ministry specified that a Lebanese man who had succumbed to injuries sustained in an Israeli strike "several days ago" on the southern village of Beit Lif was a Hezbollah fighter, not a civilian as earlier reported.

Hezbollah said overnight into Monday it launched salvos of rockets "in response" to the Israeli fire, targeting troops stationed in northern Israel.

"Approximately 30 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon toward the area of Kabri," the Israeli military said Monday, reporting no casualties and announcing retaliatory strikes.

The military on Sunday said its forces had "struck a Hezbollah terrorist cell in the area of Taybeh" as well as "a military structure in the area of Derdghaiya".

"Following the strike, secondary explosions were identified, indicating the presence of weapons inside the structure" in Derdghaiya, it added.

Hezbollah claimed several attacks against military positions in northern Israel on Sunday, including at least two using drones.

The cross-border violence since early October has killed at least 565 people in Lebanon, most of them fighters but also including at least 116 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, 22 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed, according to military figures.

Thousands have been displaced from both sides of the border due to the fighting



Leaders of France, Germany and Britain Endorse Calls for Ceasefire in Gaza 

People flee clear the rubble in a building hit during Israeli bombardment in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, on August 12, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
People flee clear the rubble in a building hit during Israeli bombardment in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, on August 12, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Leaders of France, Germany and Britain Endorse Calls for Ceasefire in Gaza 

People flee clear the rubble in a building hit during Israeli bombardment in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, on August 12, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
People flee clear the rubble in a building hit during Israeli bombardment in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, on August 12, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

The leaders of France, Germany and Britain have endorsed calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, the return of scores of hostages held by Hamas and the “unfettered” delivery of humanitarian aid.

In a joint statement released Monday, they endorsed the latest push by the United States, Qatar and Egypt to broker an agreement to end the 10-month-old Israel-Hamas war.

The mediators have spent months trying to get the sides to agree to a three-phase plan in which Hamas would release the remaining hostages captured in its Oct. 7 attack in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel and Israel would withdraw from Gaza.

“The fighting must end now, and all hostages still detained by Hamas must be released. The people of Gaza need urgent and unfettered delivery and distribution of aid,” the statement said.

It was signed by French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

The statement also called on Iran and its allies to refrain from any retaliatory attacks that would further escalate regional tensions after the killing of two senior militants last month in Beirut and Tehran.