BEIRUT (AP) — The Israeli military said Thursday that two of its soldiers were killed in combat in southern Lebanon in the first Israeli deaths since the implementation of a shaky truce between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in June.
Four other soldiers were wounded, the military said. The deaths had been reported by Israeli media a day earlier.
The Israeli army launched strikes Wednesday in southern Lebanon in response to what it described as Hezbollah’s violation of the ceasefire and issued a call for residents of the village of Mansouri to flee — the first such warning Israel has issued in Lebanon for weeks.
There was no immediate statement from Hezbollah.
The escalation came as Lebanese and Israeli negotiators met in Rome to discuss implementation of a June 26 deal under which Israeli forces are supposed to withdraw from areas they occupy in southern Lebanon and allow the Lebanese army to take control, in exchange for Hezbollah’s disarmament.
The latest Israel-Hezbollah war erupted on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets across the border two days after the U.S. and Israel launched their attacks on Iran.
A shaky truce between Israel and Hezbollah has largely held since June 20, but Israeli forces have continued to occupy swaths of southern Lebanon and to carry out periodic airstrikes and shelling.
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