TEL AVIV — Israel said Friday that it had struck Hezbollah targets across southern and eastern Lebanon in response to the killing of four Israeli soldiers, including a battalion commander in an attack on a tank.
The fighting posed a major early test for the U.S-Iran peace deal signed earlier this week. As clashes continued, United States and Iranian officials said they had postponed negotiations planned in Switzerland on Friday, and Vice President JD Vance postponed a trip in which he was to have led a U.S. delegation.
The deaths of the Israel soldiers were the first since Israel and Lebanon agreed to their own ceasefire earlier this month. The fighting in Lebanon defied President Donald Trump’s call on Israel and Hezbollah, just hours earlier, to maintain a ceasefire to allow the negotiations between the United States and Iran to proceed.
At least 18 people were killed and another 33 injured as a result of the Israel strikes, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said in a statement, adding that it expected the toll to rise. The ministry said ongoing attacks were preventing rescue operations.
The continuing clashes between Israel and Hezbollah, an Iran-linked militant group, has been a significant obstacle to efforts by the U.S. and Iran to bring their conflict to an end. Israeli officials have denounced Trump’s peace deal, saying it leaves Iran as a threat. Vice President JD Vance has pushed back hard on the criticism, warning Israel that it is politically isolated.
The fighting on Friday began overnight after a “a suspicious target impacted an IDF tank” near the Lebanese village of Tebnit,” an Israel Defense Forces official told The Washington Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations.
“Following the incident, the IDF struck numerous Hezbollah infrastructure sites in Nabatieh and additional areas,” the official said.
After the deaths of the four soldiers, ministers in the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for intensifying strikes against Hezbollah.
“Time to open the gates of hell,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich posted on X.
“The whole of Lebanon must burn,” National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said. ״With all due respect to the Americans, Israel must make it clear to the entire world that our sons’ blood and our citizens’ security are not up for abandonment.”
Since March, at least 34 IDF soldiers and four civilians have been killed in attacks by Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia.
Fighting has also killed nearly 4,000 people in Lebanon, according the Lebanese Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The Memorandum of Understanding laying out the framework for the peace deal initially requires far more from the United States than from Iran, calling on Washington to lift sanctions and release billions in Iranian frozen assets while demanding that Tehran only open the Strait of Hormuz, a critical passageway for global energy supplies.
Trump had called attention to the situation on Lebanon in a social media posting on Thursday, saying: “We expect a complete Ceasefire on all fronts, including Lebanon, Hezbollah, and Israel.”
El-Chamaa and Haidamous reported from Beirut.
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