Israeli troops advance deeper into Lebanon as military talks begin
Israeli troops pushed deeper into southern Lebanon while Lebanese and Israeli military officials held rare direct talks at the Pentagon. The discussions focused on regional security and ceasefire implementation as hostilities, airstrikes and cross-border fighting continued across southern Lebanon
Beirut: Israeli troops entered a southern Lebanese village early on Friday, pushing deeper into the country as Lebanese and Israeli military officials held direct talks at the Pentagon over the deadly conflict.
The entry of Israeli troops into the village of Dibbine, near the town of Marjayoun, came as Israeli airstrikes killed at least six people. Five were killed in airstrikes on the villages of Deir Qanoun al Nahr and Abbasiyeh, while a municipal policeman was killed in the village of Ebba, state media reported.
In Washington, a six-member Lebanese military delegation met Israeli military officials on Friday in the first direct military talks between the two countries in decades.
The Pentagon, in a statement released late on Friday, said the talks were “productive” but stopped short of noting any accomplishments or achievements. It said the talks “focused on building practical frameworks for regional security and stability” and that the “tangible outcomes” from the discussions will directly inform negotiations with political leaders being conducted by the State Department next week.
Talks between senior officials from Israel and Lebanon have been going on since last month but are complicated by the fact that Hezbollah, Israel’s target, is not participating in the discussions and has refused to accept their results.
A nominal ceasefire went into effect on April 17. A senior Lebanese military official told The Associated Press earlier on Friday that the Lebanese delegation, led by the army’s head of operations Brigadier General George Rizkallah, would aim to make it comprehensive.
The official added that the Lebanese delegation would request the reactivation of the committee monitoring the enforcement of an earlier US-brokered ceasefire that halted the war between Israel and Hezbollah in late 2024.
Another Lebanese official, who was briefed throughout the day about the talks at the Pentagon, also said the delegation would seek the comprehensive implementation of the ceasefire and a halt to ongoing hostilities.
He said implementation would be followed by talks at a later date on matters such as deploying the Lebanese army along the border and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media about the ongoing talks in Washington.
President Joseph Aoun’s office said he received a call on Friday from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and they discussed the situation in Lebanon and the latest developments in the Middle East. Aoun’s office said the president told Rubio that efforts should concentrate on implementing the ceasefire as it is “the essential entry point for transitioning to any other issues”.
In April, Lebanon and Israel held their first direct talks in Washington in more than three decades.
The Israeli military issued several evacuation warnings for southern Lebanon on Friday, forcing hundreds of families to flee to safer areas further north.
Israeli troops fought Hezbollah fighters inside the villages of Yohmor and Zawtar al-Sharqieh near the city of Nabatieh after crossing the strategic Litani River, which the Israeli military has used as a de facto boundary. Large areas to the south are under Israeli military control despite the April ceasefire.
Hezbollah, whose members have been fighting Israeli troops for days in the area, said in statements that its fighters struck Israeli troops inside Yohmor.
The two villages are close to the Crusader-built Beaufort Castle, which is about 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the Israeli border and overlooks large parts of southern Lebanon. It was not clear whether Israeli troops were trying to capture the castle, which lies north of the Litani.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the northern front on Friday, where he spoke to members of the military. “I must tell you that there are very impressive results here. Our forces have crossed the Litani; they have advanced to controlling positions,” he said.
“We are operating in Beirut, in the Bekaa, across the entire width of the front, and we are dealing Hezbollah a crushing blow,” Netanyahu said, referring to Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley and Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Israel’s air force struck on Thursday.
The violence in southern Lebanon came as US and Iranian negotiators reached a tentative agreement on Thursday to extend the ceasefire in the three-month-old war by 60 days and start a new round of talks on Iran’s nuclear programme, according to a US official familiar with the matter.
Iran did not immediately confirm any deal. Vice President J D Vance on Thursday evening confirmed there was a tentative agreement but said it was unclear whether President Donald Trump would approve it.
Hezbollah legislator Hassan Fadlallah said on Friday that any deal between Iran and the US would stop Israel’s offensive in Lebanon. Officials in Iran, Hezbollah’s main backer, have said they insist that a deal with Washington would stop the latest Israel-Hezbollah war that started on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel two days after Israel and the US attacked Iran.
The latest Israel-Hezbollah war has left 3,200 people dead in Lebanon and displaced more than one million (10 lakh) people.