Sawt Falasteen - Israeli strikes wound dozens in Lebanon as talks in US enter second day

United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Lebanon Imran Riza condemned the "unacceptable" toll from continued attacks, saying that "diplomatic efforts now offer a critical opportunity to stop the violence".

A truce in the war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah has been in place since April 17, but it has not stopped the fighting, with hundreds killed in strikes since then and both sides accusing the other of violations.

"The IDF has begun striking Hezbollah infrastructure sites in the area of Tyre in southern Lebanon," the Israeli military said in a statement.

An AFP correspondent reported a series of strikes, two of them near Tyre city, while state media said another targeted a centre run by a local NGO near a hospital.

Lebanon's health ministry said the strikes on the Tyre district wounded at least 37 people, including six hospital personnel, nine women and four children.

Hafez Ramadan, a resident near the building targeted by the airstrike, said the building housed displaced people who had fled their towns due to the war, and was adjacent to a hotel where the displaced were also staying.

"There are only women, children and the elderly here. Because of this strike, people have been displaced again."

The Israeli army had earlier issued evacuation warnings for five towns and villages in and around the southern city.

It later issued a new evacuation warning for five other towns across the south.

- 'Unacceptable' toll -

In a separate statement, the military said an Israeli soldier was killed in southern Lebanon, bringing the number of Israeli soldiers killed in clashes with Hezbollah since early March to 19. A civilian contractor was also killed.

Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) reported other strikes on locations in the south not included in the Israeli evacuation warnings.

Hezbollah meanwhile claimed several attacks on Israeli troops in at least six southern Lebanese towns.

Riza said "the reality on the ground in Lebanon has been deeply alarming", adding that "airstrikes and demolitions continue daily, with an unacceptable toll on civilians and civilian infrastructure".

But he expressed his hope that the Lebanon-Israel talks "will pave the way toward a political solution".

Representatives from Lebanon and Israel, officially at war for decades, resumed talks at the State Department in Washington shortly after 9:00 am (1300 GMT), one diplomat said.

The US described the first day of talks in Washington on Thursday as positive, but neither Lebanon or Israel have commented.

Lebanon hopes that the round of negotiations in Washington on Friday will end with an extension of the ceasefire and an agreement from Israel to halt its attacks.

The truce is set to expire on Sunday if an extension is not agreed.

- 'Humiliating' talks -

Lebanon was dragged into the Middle East war on March 2 when Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Israeli attacks since then have killed more than 2,900 people in Lebanon, including more than 400 since the truce took effect, according to Lebanese authorities.

The negotiating teams in Washington are being led by Lebanon's Simon Karam and Israel's Yechiel Leiter, both political veterans with entrenched views.

A former ambassador to Washington and independent politician, 76-year-old Karam is known for his defence of Lebanese unity in a country riven by sectarian divisions.

Leiter is Israel's ambassador to the United States and a longtime ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and is well-versed in Israeli settler politics, conservative activism and hard-edged diplomacy.

Lebanon is under heavy US and Israeli pressure to disarm Hezbollah.

Israeli troops have invaded parts of southern Lebanon since the start of the war, carrying out widespread demolitions of villages over the past weeks.

Hezbollah, meanwhile, rejects outright any direct engagement between the two countries.

Senior Hezbollah official Mahmud Qamati said Friday that Beirut "going to direct, humiliating negotiations with the Israeli enemy is not a separate issue from a comprehensive conspiracy against the nation, its sovereignty and its resistance" at a time when "the south is being destroyed and martyrs are being killed daily".

O.Salim--SF-PST