By Lisa Golden AFP and Posted by TOE

Israel struck south Lebanon on Thursday and threatened new attacks on Beirut despite an announcement hours earlier that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to implement a conditional ceasefire.

Israeli and Lebanese envoys held a fourth round of talks in Washington on Wednesday, agreeing to implement a ceasefire hinged on Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah halting its attacks.

But Hezbollah, which rejects the direct Israel-Lebanon talks, has not commented on the announcement, while Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz said military operations would continue in south Lebanon.

Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the wider Middle East war to avenge the killing in US-Israeli strikes of Iran’s supreme leader on February 28, and has vowed to keep fighting despite a push by the Lebanese government to disarm it.

Despite the agreement in Washington, Katz said Israeli forces retained the “freedom of action, with American backing, to strike in Beirut in response to fire on Israeli communities and territory”.

The army will “at this stage, continue its fire and ground operations, remain in the security zone in Lebanon up to the Yellow Line — including in the Beaufort area — and without the return of the population, while continuing to dismantle terrorist infrastructure on the ground,” he said.

An April 17 truce was meant to halt the fighting and was extended several times but has never been observed, with both sides justifying their ongoing attacks by the other’s alleged violations.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported strikes along roads at several southern locations on Thursday, with a couple and their daughter wounded in an attack on their car.

– ‘Serious mistake’ –

Israel’s military renewed a warning to Lebanese not to go south of the Zahrani River around 45 kilometres (28 miles), after it last week declared all areas south the river “combat zones”.

Earlier Thursday, the Israeli military said air raid sirens were sounded in northern Israel, with one incident involving a “suspicious aerial target” resolved, while another incident was found to be a false alarm.

Before the announcement, Hezbollah said it had launched rockets and drones early Thursday at Israeli troops who have invaded south Lebanon.

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir criticised the deal, calling it a “serious mistake”.

According statement issued after the meeting, the two sides, which do not have formal diplomatic relations, also agreed to create “pilot zones” in which the Lebanese armed forces “will take exclusive control of the territory to the exclusion of all non-state actors”.

More Lebanon-Israel talks are scheduled for later this month.

Senior Hezbollah official Mahmud Qomati had told AFP this week that the group would “not accept a partial ceasefire”.

On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump said he wanted to separate talks on the conflict in Lebanon and those on the war with Iran. 

Tehran, however, insists the conflicts are linked and its Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned that any attack on Beirut would trigger a “full-scale resumption” of war.

Lebanon says Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,500 people since Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the wider Middle East war on March 2, firing rockets at Israel in retaliation for US-Israeli strikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader.