BEIRUT, May 11 (Reuters) – Lebanon’s president has urged the United States to put pressure on Israel to cease fire and stop home demolitions in south Lebanon, the presidency said on Monday, as the death toll from Israeli attacks rose.
Lebanon’s health ministry said 74 people had been killed by Israeli strikes in the last three days despite a truce announced last month in fighting between Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah and the Israeli military, a spokesperson said.
Tehran said it had demanded security for Lebanon as part of a proposal for ending the wider war with the U.S. and reopening the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. President Donald Trump has rejected Iran’s proposal.
The Hezbollah-Israel conflict reignited on March 2 when the group opened fire at Israel in support of Tehran.
Hostilities have continued since Trump declared a ceasefire on April 16, mostly in south Lebanon, where Israel is occupying a self-declared security zone, saying it aims to guard against Hezbollah attacks.
The Lebanese health ministry spokesperson said the victims since Saturday had been killed in various Israeli strikes, including one that killed at least seven people in the southern town of Saksakiyeh.
It said 2,869 people had been killed since March 2, including 584 medics, women and minors. Its toll does not say how many combatants are among the dead.
WASHINGTON TO HOST THIRD ROUND OF TALKS
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, in a meeting with U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa, “stressed … the necessity of pressure on Israel to halt fire and military operations and the destruction and bulldozing of homes”, the presidency said.
Israel has been demolishing villages in the south, saying it is acting against Hezbollah militants embedded in civilian areas.
Aoun and Issa also reviewed “developments related” to a third round of talks due in Washington between Lebanese and Israeli government representatives, the presidency said.
Washington last month hosted two rounds of talks between the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to Washington, the highest-level contacts between Israel and Lebanon in decades. The U.S. will facilitate the third round on May 14 and 15, the State Department said.
Lebanon’s delegation will be headed by former ambassador to Washington Simon Karam. Aoun, who nominated Karam for the role, gave him his directives during a meeting on Saturday, the presidency said.
Beirut’s decision to hold face-to-face contacts with Israel reflects a deep divide in Lebanon over Hezbollah’s arsenal and the group’s decision to attack Israel. Critics accuse the group of unilaterally dragging Lebanon into war.
Hezbollah has demanded the government cancel the talks. Israel last week carried out its first strike on Beirut’s Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs since the ceasefire was declared. Israel says the strike killed the commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force. Hezbollah has not confirmed his death.
Israel says Hezbollah has launched hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel since March 2.
Some 1.2 million people have been driven from their homes in Lebanon, many of them fleeing from the south.
Israel says 17 of its soldiers have been killed in southern Lebanon, along with two civilians in northern Israel.
(Reporting by Laila Bassam, Writing by Tom Perry, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
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