BEIRUT (AP) — The Israeli military early Thursday pounded Lebanon’s fourth-largest city, killing at least 14 people across the south of the country in its ongoing military escalation against the Hezbollah group ahead of crucial talks in Washington.Among those killed in the flurry of strikes were five women and children and a Lebanese soldier. Dozens of others were wounded, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry and the state-run National News Agency.An Israeli soldier meanwhile was killed in a Hezbollah drone attack in northern Israel, the Israeli military said.The intensification comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced an expansion in the Israeli military’s attacks in Lebanon, apparently sparked by Hezbollah’s use of fiber-optic exploding drones that have struck Israeli troops in Lebanon and reached some of Israel’s northern border towns.
Lebanese and Israeli military officials are set to hold their first security talks on Friday in the U.S. capital. The talks have extended a nominal ceasefire that went into effect April 17, although the attacks have since intensified, while sparing the Lebanese capital Beirut.
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Hezbollah has dismissed the talks and instead endorsed its key ally Iran, which has made ending the war in Lebanon a condition for its own talks with Washington brokered by Pakistan.Before the attacks on Thursday, Israeli military Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued warnings to eight buildings in the coastal city of Tyre along the Mediterranean and surrounding neighborhoods. Many people have fled the area.
