Lebanon’s health ministry says the death toll from Israeli strikes has now passed 3,000 people across the entire country today. It is a grim count. On Monday, officials put the total at 3,020 since the fighting flared up at the beginning of March after rocket fire.
And the violence shows no sign of stopping despite the current diplomatic efforts to end the fire in the south. Yet a fragile ceasefire is supposed to be in place across the border right now to prevent this spill of blood. But more than 400 of these deaths happened after that deal started on 17 April during a very violent month.
The ministry says both sides keep breaking the rules of the truce through constant fire and heavy shelling near the line. Now the conflict is entering a dark new phase as the body count climbs higher every single day of the week.
The war began on 2 March. Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel after an Israeli strike killed Iran's supreme leader and his inner circle during a very tense week of fighting. Since then, the south has burned.
On Friday, the two sides agreed to keep the truce going for another 45 days while they wait for June talks. They plan to talk again at the beginning of June to find a way out of this deep and bloody mess. But the U.S. deal lets Israel strike if it sees Hezbollah moving weapons or men near the front line in Lebanon.
Lebanon says these hits make it hard for the state to control the border and its own armed groups or weapons. On Saturday, Israeli jets hit more than two dozen villages in a massive wave of fire and thick black smoke. Only nine of them got a warning to leave before the heavy bombs fell on the small family homes.
The strikes hit the Bekaa Valley and the surrounding hills. Hezbollah says its fighters hit back at the Yaara barracks with drones on that same day of the heavy attack. They claim they are still fighting Israeli troops on the ground in several spots near the border wall and the mountain passes.
The Israeli military says one soldier died in the latest clash on Lebanese soil during this past weekend in April. This brings their total loss to 20 soldiers since the start of March when the war first began in earnest. Four civilians in Israel have died too. Israeli troops still hold a 10km strip of land inside Lebanon that they took by force late last month. They seized it during the first weeks of the war to push back the threat from the north with force. Many people cannot go home.
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