Israel, Hezbollah continue to trade fire despite U.S.-brokered truce
by Paul Godfrey · UPIJune 2 (UPI) -- Israel and Hezbollah continued to exchange fire on Tuesday, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump intervened to broker a partial cease-fire he said both sides had signed onto.
At least four municipalities in and around the southern Lebanese city of Nabtieh, 15 miles southeast of Sidon, were targeted by Israeli strikes, injuring two Lebanese Army soldiers and an Israeli drone had overflown Beirut at low altitude, according to Lebanese media.
Lebanon's National News Agency said the Israeli military had reiterated evacuation orders to the Nabatieh residents, telling them to head north of the Zahrani River and said several other areas of southern Lebanon had been struck, including Debbine, where a "very violent" blast from a large-scale demolition by Israeli forces had shaken the town.
The Israeli military said in a post on X that air raid warnings were activated just before 2 a.m. local time by "the intrusion of hostile aircraft into several areas in the north of the country" and that it had intercepted two projectiles that had been fired into northern Israel from Lebanon.
Clashes were reported in Haddatha, close to the Lebanon-Israel border, and Bayada, east of Tyre, where Hezbollah claimed its forces engaged with Israeli tanks with missiles and shells.
The exchanges came after Lebanon said Hezbollah had agreed to halt attacks on Israel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rescinded orders to attack the Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, a Hezbollah stronghold.
However, Netanyahu said Israeli forces would continue their operations in southern Lebanon and that the threatened strikes on the capital would be carried out "if Hezbollah does not stop attacking our cities and civilians."
The fragile truce was hastily cobbled together by Trump on Monday over the phone, one-to-one with Netanyahu and indirectly to Hezbollah, via intermediaries, after Israeli advances deeper into Lebanon at the weekend prompted Iran to threaten to pull out of peace negotiations with the United States.
"I had a very productive call with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, of Israel, and there will be no Troops going to Beirut, and any Troops that are on their way, have already been turned back. Likewise, through highly placed Representatives, I had a very good call with Hezbollah, and they agreed that all shooting will stop -- That Israel will not attack them, and they will not attack Israel," Trump announced on his Truth Social platform Sunday night.
Trump's intervention came after Iran's state-run Tasnim News Agency said Israel's ongoing military operations in Lebanon violated the terms of the cease-fire Iran agreed with the United States in April, threatened to shut the Strait of Hormuz and that it was looking to "activate" its "resistance front" in other spheres.
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