The Albany Gazette - Israeli strike in Lebanon kills 13 security forces as war toll rises

Lebanon's health ministry raised the toll of massive Israeli strikes across the country on Wednesday to 357 dead and 1,223 wounded, noting the count was still provisional as rubble was still being removed two days later.

Israel's military said it "eliminated more than 180 militants" from Hezbollah in Wednesday's strikes, which came hours after a ceasefire was announced between the United States and Iran, adding that "the count is still ongoing".

Washington and Tehran are at odds over whether the truce applies to Lebanon.

Militant group Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2 with rocket fire at Israel in support of its backer Iran, triggering heavy Israeli strikes and a ground invasion in the country's south.

Naim Qassem, head of the Iran-backed Hezbollah, urged the Lebanese government to stop giving "free concessions" to Israel ahead of talks to try and end the hostilities, which Lebanese authorities say have killed 1,953 people.

The state-run National News Agency (NNA) said "enemy warplanes launched a series of heavy strikes" on Nabatiyeh on Friday, hitting a State Security office near the government headquarters in the city.

- 'Painful loss' -

An AFP photographer saw extensive damage and a fire still raging at the site, where State Security said 13 of its personnel were killed.

"This painful loss only strengthens our determination to achieve a ceasefire that will protect Lebanon and our people in the south," Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said in a statement.

President Joseph Aoun called on the international community to "assume its responsibilities in putting an end to the repeated Israeli aggressions".

Israel's military said it had "dismantled" more than 4,300 Hezbollah sites in Lebanon and killed "more than 1,400" Hezbollah fighters since the war erupted.

The Iran-backed group claimed dozens of attacks on Israeli targets on Friday, including cross-border rocket barrages which it said came in retaliation for the Nabatiyeh strikes, and a missile attack on a naval base in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod, far from the border.

Israel reported more than 30 rockets from Lebanon on Friday.

As the government prepared for talks with Israel, outside the auspices of the US-Iran talks in Islamabad, Hezbollah chief Qassem described Israel's military campaign as a failure, adding that "the resistance will continue until the last breath".

- Beirut threat -

A US official on Thursday said talks between Israel and Lebanon would take place in Washington next week.

On Thursday afternoon, the Israeli military issued a warning of incoming strikes for large, densely populated areas of southern Beirut, but so far had not carried out the threat.

A Western diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity that "there is ongoing diplomatic pressure from European states, Gulf states and Egypt on Israel to prevent renewed Israeli airstrikes on Beirut after 'Black Wednesday'".

Israel's warning on Thursday included areas home to major hospitals and the road to the country's only international airport.

But Transport Minister Fayez Rasamny has said he had "received assurances" from foreign diplomats that the facility and the road there would be spared.

Mohammad Zaatari, director of the country's largest public medical facility, Rafic Hariri Hospital, told AFP: "We have received assurances, including from the International Committee of the Red Cross that the hospital would not be targeted."

The World Health Organisation had urged on Israel to cancel its evacuation warning for Beirut's Jnah district, saying around 450 patients were in the Rafic Hariri and Al-Zahraa hospitals in the district, including 40 in intensive care.

Lebanon says the war has also displaced more than one million people, with over 140,000 of them staying in collective shelters.

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(R.White--TAG)