Israel keeps striking Lebanon as US-Iran deal nears signing
Israel carried out further strikes in southern Lebanon on June 16 and 17, including drone attacks on Tyre, Bint Jbeil, Kfar Tebnit and Nabatieh al-Fawqa, Al Jazeera reported . At least four people were killed in strikes on June 16. Since Israel’s large-scale offensive began on March 2, Lebanese officials report more than 3,800 people killed, about 11,850 wounded and over a million displaced.
The strikes come as a US-brokered framework agreement with Iran heads toward a formal signing on June 20. Overall violence has dropped sharply — UN data shows projectiles falling from 705 to 174 between consecutive weeks — but the fighting has not stopped. Iran said Israel committed 84 ceasefire violations in two days and warned of a “harsh response,” while Lebanese and Iranian officials cast an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory as a core condition for moving the framework forward.
The friction points to the deal’s central weakness: it pairs Washington and Tehran but does not bind Israel, whose forces security sources believe are working to hold strategic high ground around Nabatieh. Continued strikes give Iran a pretext to slow-walk or abandon the agreement, leaving the signing exposed to events on a front the negotiators do not directly control.