Israel strikes Lebanon despite ceasefire, at least 16 killed • FRANCE 24 English

[00:00:00]Our top story this hour is real and Hezbollah said they agreed to a ceasefire, but the reality on the ground tells a different story. Since the truce came into effect Friday afternoon, Lebanon's civil defense is reporting that Israeli attacks on the Nabatieh district have killed at least 16 people and wounded 12 others. Israel also bombed the Bekaa Valley in the east of the country killing one person there as well as southern Lebanon's Tyre district killing five people. Israel says it's reacting to attacks from Hezbollah and that the militant group launched more than 50 projectiles at its forces overnight.

[00:00:41]For more on this, we can cross to Jerusalem and speak with our correspondent Noga Tarnopolsky. So, Noga, it doesn't seem much like a ceasefire at the moment. What more can you tell us about these latest Israeli strikes?

[00:00:59]>> No, it really does not seem much like a ceasefire. And it's interesting also to note in the army statement which came out really after great delay. All day long we've been trying to find out what are these Israeli army uh strikes hitting at? What are they targeting inside Lebanon?

[00:01:17]Um what the army describes is a situation which its own soldiers in southern Lebanon are being targeted.

[00:01:25]They say more than 50 times overnight.

[00:01:28]And it's a complicated situation even geopolitically because we know that uh these are conscripted soldiers by and large 18 and 19-year-olds. For Israelis, they're considered basically like kids just out of high school. And every attempt to hit these soldiers is taken very hard in Israel, especially after four were killed yesterday in a very successful Hezbollah strike against an Israeli tank in southern Lebanon. But we also know because President Trump has said has said so explicitly that if there are no dead Israeli civilians involved in any of these Hezbollah attacks, he considers them too minor to for Israel to respond to. And so what we're seeing again is Lebanon, the nation of Lebanon basically as a peon, exactly what the government of Lebanon doesn't want to see. It wants to assert sovereignty and instead Lebanese territories being used as a fighting ground between Hezbollah operating as an arm of Iran and the state of Israel. And while Iran Iran's role here is pretty nefarious, it is Israel with which the United States has expressed great anger in recent days. So it really is something of a tightrope for Prime Minister Netanyahu.

[00:02:45]>> Now, uh speaking of that, Noga, The Washington Post just had an article that US intelligence is warning that Israel is likely to try and undermine this peace deal that was just signed. So, is that what's happening here? Are they intentionally trying to sabotage it with these ongoing strikes, or is this more that they're acting in the interest of national security?

[00:03:10]>> Could of course be both, Catherine. It could be anything here. It's entirely conceivable and it would be very normal in this region to see that Hezbollah operating as a sort of fake independent arm associated with Iran is trying to push the envelope, is trying to provoke Israel into the sort of response that would see this understanding between the United States and Iran collapse, and at the same time Prime Minister Netanyahu is under an enormous amount of pressure internally to show that he can secure Israeli borders. Hezbollah and Iran's interest, of course, is the contrary, is to prove that he cannot. And so what we really are is a very volatile mix.

[00:03:55]Um certainly for Iran that I think does want to keep these talks going with the United States, even if they're not very fruitful talks, but wants to keep at least the illusion of an ongoing dialogue alive. And so, it's playing with fire by using its arm in Lebanon to attack Israel. But, Israel really is playing a very dangerous game here. The Prime Minister personally is under tremendous pressure internally and from the United States to show that he can change reality on the ground.

[00:04:26]>> Noga, thank you so much for keeping us updated. That's Noga Tarnopolsky reporting there in Jerusalem. Noga,