Israel struck the historic port city of Tyre in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, killing at least eight people, in an escalation that adds strain to efforts to broker a peace deal to end the wider West Asia war.
On Monday, Israel and Iran halted direct attacks on each other after an appeal by US President Donald Trump, but Tehran warned it would resume hostilities if Israel continued to attack its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The raids were the deadliest on Tyre since fighting erupted in Lebanon in early March, when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel in support of Tehran after Israel and the United States began their war against Iran.
Israel had issued an evacuation order for the city earlier on Tuesday. Residents fled and civil defence teams transported elderly residents into temporary shelters, state media reported. The eight victims were killed in a single strike on the city’s eastern edge, Lebanon’s health ministry said.
A video verified by Reuters showed debris strewn across a road at the site of the attack.
Israel’s Lebanon Campaign Complicates Trump’s Peace Quest
Israel’s refusal to end its campaign in Lebanon, as Iran demands, has hindered Trump’s efforts to extend a tenuous ceasefire in the wider US-Israeli war with Iran into a durable settlement.
As a truce announced on Apr 8 largely holds in the war in the Gulf, Trump said two US helicopter crew members were “fine” following their rescue by a US Navy drone after their Apache gunship went down near the Iranian-controlled Strait of Hormuz.
It was not clear whether the Apache had been shot down by Iranian fire, experienced mechanical failure, or encountered another problem. Asked if he knew what had brought it down off Oman, Trump said a report would be issued later on Tuesday.
A US Navy surface drone found and rescued the two crew, the US military told Reuters. US Central Command said the AH-64 Apache went down at around 3 a.m. on Tuesday (2300 GMT on Monday).
