BEIRUT
\nLebanese state media reported Israeli airstrikes and shelling overnight into Thursday morning, after Israel announced its first military fatalities in more than a month as renewed hostilities flared.
\nThe strikes \u2014 which began Wednesday afternoon and were accompanied by the first evacuation warning in weeks \u2014 came as Israel and Lebanon took part in US-mediated talks in Rome, with Beirut seeking Israel\u2019s phased withdrawal from the south.
\nLebanon\u2019s official National News Agency (NNA) reported that \u201cthe Israeli enemy escalated its attacks\u201d on Tyre district with \u201ca series of airstrikes and artillery shelling\u201d that lasted from Wednesday night into Thursday morning. The agency reported four strikes in the town of Burj Al-Shamali, leaving four people wounded.
\nIt also said Israeli aircraft carried out three strikes in and around Mansouri, as \u201cartillery shelling and tank fire\u201d targeted the town simultaneously. Mansouri\u2019s residents had been warned by the Israeli military on Wednesday to evacuate. The Lebanese health ministry reported at least one person killed in Wednesday\u2019s strikes.
\nIsrael accused Hezbollah on Wednesday of forcing it to act by violating a ceasefire that had sharply reduced the level of hostilities since June. Its military later announced that two reservists were killed on Wednesday \u2014 the first soldiers to die in Lebanon since June 28.
\nAt the US-backed talks in Rome aimed at ending the fighting, Israel requested that the day\u2019s proceedings end early on Wednesday, a source told media, though they were expected to resume on Thursday. In previous talks in June, Israel and Lebanon agreed to a framework deal that involves the disarmament of Hezbollah, a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon\u2019s south and the deployment of the Lebanese army to the region, starting in \u201cpilot zones.\u201d
\nIran-backed Hezbollah has repeatedly rejected the talks and refuses to surrender its weapons, and its leader Naim Qassem said on Tuesday that the direct negotiations would bring \u201cnothing but shame, humiliation\u201d and concessions for Lebanon. Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the wider Middle East war on March 2, firing rockets at Israel in support of its patron Iran.
\nThe violence had waned since the Lebanon-Israel deal and the signing of a preliminary US-Iran agreement on the Middle East conflict, though intermittent Israeli strikes and shelling continued. Since the fighting in Lebanon first erupted, Israel\u2019s military has lost 38 soldiers and one civilian contractor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BEIRUT Lebanese state media reported Israeli airstrikes and shelling overnight into Thursday morning, after Israel announced its first military fatalities in more than a month as renewed hostilities flared. The strikes \u2014 which began Wednesday afternoon and were accompanied by the first evacuation warning in weeks \u2014 came as Israel and Lebanon took part in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-560584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n