Iran war live: Israel attacks Lebanon again on eve of US-Iran truce talks

Israel Lebanon war: Netanyahu air force hits Beirut as US-Iran sit down

BY Muhammad Asghar | GlobalBeat

Israeli jets pounded Beirut and southern Lebanon overnight, killing 17 and wounding 42 hours before Washington and Tehran meet for nuclear truce talks.

The strikes, which hit Hezbollah strongholds in Dahiyeh and near the Israeli border, came minutes after the White House confirmed the first direct US-Iran negotiations since June.

Monday’s escalation undid a four-day lull and shelves European efforts to widen a Gaza cease-fire into a Lebanon corridor. Israeli officials told Reuters that two radar-guided Scalp raids targeted missile caches uncovered by drones last week. Lebanon blamed Israel for sparking Sunday’s Hezbollah rocket barrage that landed inside Israel’s Upper Galilee without casualties.

President Donald Trump had raised hopes of “quiet on all borders” after the previous administration’s limited exchanges with Israel and Hamas led to a Qatar-brokered pause. That accord left Lebanon’s front fully open, prompting Tehran-backed militias to fire daily at Israeli tanks, according to the UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL. The Israeli military said 312 rockets and 48 drones had crossed since November.

This is the third major flare-up since February, when Israeli strikes killed seven Lebanese soldiers who had stayed neutral in previous wars. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the new raids were retaliation for a drone that exploded inside Israel’s Kiryat Shmona last week. Lebanon’s foreign ministry counter-claimed that Israeli reconnaissance drones violated sovereign airspace “more than 800 times a month.”

Iran’s foreign ministry called the strike “deliberate sabotage” of Tuesday’s Vienna talks that UK and French mediators also joined. Israel’s army spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani answered: “No Iranian dictation will protect Hezbollah targets—period.”

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz alarmed diplomats Saturday after he briefed visiting senators that Israel had expanded rules of engagement that allow hitting “near-border real estate used for terror.” Translation: villages from which Hezbollah observers filmed IDF positions will now be liable to attack, according to an official present. The Israeli cabinet’s security committee granted that authority Friday despite Leaked reports, not publicly denied, that the United States urged restraint until diplomacy resumed.

Lebanese hospitals near Tyre said wounded civilians included a 12-year-old boy undergoing emergency leg surgery. Similar casualty counts could not be independently verified because Arab Joint Army medical crews reached both sites only after dawn. A security source told local channel LBCI that two bodies were already “beyond recognition—likely Hezbollah fighters.”

The magnitude rattled global metal and energy markets before Asia closed. Brent crude gained 65 cents to $74.08 per barrel while gold surged to $2,124 per ounce, the highest this year. The Israeli shekel weakened 1.2 percent by noon local time against a basket of currencies. US energy executives eyeing EastMed pipeline projects quietly warned investors a Lebanon–Israel conflict could imperil a long-planned route through contested offshore fields that hold an estimated 48 trillion cubic feet of gas.

At UN headquarters, France requested an emergency Security Council session for late Monday to address “the southern Lebanon powder-keg.” On a day when Russia is council chair, a UN veto is improbable though a draft press statement calling “for immediate cessation” circulated but lacked US co-sponsorship. The American mission tweeted that Washington supports “Israel’s right to self-defense and faces an Iran-sponsored menace too.”

In Tehran, the Supreme National Security Council convened at dawn. President Akbar Ranjbar, the first technocrat since 2013 to chair budget planning, urged envoys heading to Vienna to “package regional coexistence” with Lebanese security as a key test. Ranjbar told state TV Iran could still swap limited uranium enrichment for full oil export access, but the reaction to Israeli violence “was on everyone’s lips.”

European Union foreign policy coordinator Kaja Kallas warned in Brussels that “if cross-border fire spreads again, we must blacklist more militias.” EU envoys privately floated sanctions against Israeli oil-and-service firms suspected of launching from Levant platforms, diplomats told AFP, though agreement among 27 members remained doubtful.

Israeli eyes fix on a series of deadlines: the Vienna talks start Tuesday, but also April 30 when Netanyahu’s fragile coalition must oversee a mandatory budget vote in parliament. Failure raises the specter of snap elections later this year at a time when opposition leaders question his military leadership.

Background

Hezbollah stemmed from a 1985 merger of Shia militant cells after Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon. The group fought Israeli troops during an 18-year occupation of the south, and fought a 34-day war in 2006 that killed 1,300 people. UN Security Council Resolution 1701 called for a cease-fire and withdrawal, but periodic flare-ups have continued ever since.

Israel labels the group a proxy of Iran; Tehran supplies cash, missiles, and advisors. US and Gulf states designate Hezbollah a terrorist organization, whereas Lebanon views its armed wing as part of national resistance. The border strip has seen low-level duels for two decades, but clashes scaled up in December when Hezbollah backed Hamas during Israel’s Gaza offensive, claiming an uptick of solidarity attacks.

What’s Next

The Vienna contact group will reconvene at 10:00 AM local time after a Monday evening dinner between US delegate Richard Gannon and Iran’s Abbas Araghchi. Diplomats expect a one-page bilateral statement holding to the 2023 draft but adding a truce annex for Lebanon that parties will draft outside Vienna. Netanyahu has promised no Israeli offensive next week while negotiations run.

Any future escalation will hinge on three flashpoints: whether Hezbollah fires rockets in response to Monday’s deaths, whether Israel expands airstrikes beyond known bunkers, and whether Tehran signals to their protégés that talks demand calm on the northern front. Expect European shuttle diplomacy in Beirut by Wednesday, but European Commission sources consider Likud hawks already skeptical of peace dividends.