Sawt Falasteen - Israel hammers Lebanon with strikes, killing 22

The state-run National News Agency (NNA) said Israeli airstrikes had pounded around 40 locations in Lebanon's south and east.

The fresh raids came on the eve of a new round of direct negotiations between Lebanon and Israel in Washington brokered by the United States, as Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah remains strongly opposed to the move.

The health ministry said late Wednesday that 10 people including six children had been killed in strikes on three south Lebanon villages.

Earlier, it reported that three strikes on cars along or near the coastal highway around 20 to 30 kilometres (12 to 19 miles) from Beirut had "resulted in eight martyrs, including two children".

The NNA said two strikes had hit cars on the busy highway linking the capital to the country's south, while a third struck nearby.

An AFP photographer saw a burnt-out car and rescuers carrying a body at one of the sites, near the town of Jiyeh.

The ministry also reported four more people killed in strikes on four cars in south Lebanon's Tyre district and in Sidon, located around 40 kilometres south of Beirut.

- Drone attacks -

Since US President Donald Trump announced on April 16 that the leaders of Israel and Lebanon had agreed to a ceasefire, Israeli strikes have killed more than 400 people in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures.

The head of Lebanon's National Council for Scientific Research (CNRS), Chadi Abdallah, said more than 10,000 homes had been damaged or destroyed since the truce began.

Under the terms of the ceasefire released by Washington, Israel reserves the right to act against "planned, imminent or ongoing attacks".

In addition to launching heavy airstrikes, Israeli soldiers are operating inside an Israeli-declared "yellow line", which runs around 10 kilometres north of the Israel-Lebanon border, carrying out broad demolition operations there.

Israel's army said it had struck Hezbollah infrastructure, weapons storage facilities and rocket launchers in south Lebanon on Wednesday.

An AFP correspondent saw thick smoke from Burj al-Shemali, one of nine areas where Israel's army issued evacuation warnings.

Hezbollah claimed several attacks on Israeli troops in south Lebanon, including with drones, and said its fighters had "ambushed" and clashed with Israeli forces in one area.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said it was "increasingly concerned" about the activities of Hezbollah fighters and Israeli soldiers near UN positions in south Lebanon.

That includes "the increased use of drones, which has resulted in explosions in and around our bases and put peacekeepers at risk", a UNIFIL statement said.

It noted several recent incidents in which drones presumed to belong to Hezbollah detonated in or near UN positions, including the force's Naqura headquarters.

Hezbollah has increasingly been using cheap fibre-optic drones for its attacks on Israeli forces.

- Civil defence funeral -

In Sidon, an AFP correspondent saw dozens of mourners at the funeral for two Lebanese civil defence personnel killed in an Israeli strike a day earlier.

Fellow civil defence personnel holding Lebanese flags lined up for an honour guard as the coffins passed, also draped in the national flag, with a rescue helmet and flak jacket placed on top.

This week, Beirut asked Washington to pressure Israel to halt its strikes ahead of the talks on Thursday and Friday.

Veteran diplomat Simon Karam will head the talks for Lebanon for the first time, as Washington seeks a historic breakthrough between the two sides despite the ongoing hostilities.

On Tuesday, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem warned that his fighters would turn the battlefield into "hell" for Israel.

Since Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the wider Middle East war in early March, authorities say more than 2,800 people have been killed, including more than 200 children.

Hezbollah says the toll includes its fighters.

U.AlSharif--SF-PST