Israeli troops push deeper into Lebanon as two sides start talks

Israeli troops advanced further into southern Lebanon early on Friday, 29 May, entering a village near Marjayoun, even as Lebanese and Israeli military officials held rare direct talks at the Pentagon aimed at addressing the ongoing conflict.

Israeli forces moved into the village of Dibbine as airstrikes across southern Lebanon killed at least six people, according to Lebanese state media. Five people were killed in strikes on the villages of Deir Qanoun al Nahr and Abbasiyeh, while a municipal policeman was killed in the village of Ebba.

The developments on the ground unfolded as a six-member Lebanese military delegation met Israeli military officials in Washington, marking the first direct military-level talks between the two countries in decades.

In a statement issued late Friday, the Pentagon described the discussions as “productive”, though it did not announce any concrete breakthroughs. It said the talks focused on creating “practical frameworks for regional security and stability” and that the “tangible outcomes” would feed into negotiations involving political leaders that are scheduled to be led by the State Department next week.

Senior Israeli and Lebanese officials have been engaged in discussions since last month, though the process remains complicated by the absence of Hezbollah, the principal target of Israel’s military campaign. The group has refused to recognise the outcome of the talks.

A ceasefire nominally took effect on 17 April. A senior Lebanese military official told the Associated Press that the Lebanese delegation, headed by army operations chief Brigadier-General George Rizkallah, would seek to expand it into a comprehensive truce.

The official said Lebanon would also push for reactivating the committee overseeing implementation of the earlier US-brokered ceasefire that ended the Israel-Hezbollah war in late 2024.

A second Lebanese official, who was briefed on the Pentagon discussions, said Beirut’s delegation would seek full implementation of the ceasefire and an end to continuing hostilities. According to the official, discussions on issues such as deployment of the Lebanese army along the border and withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon would follow at a later stage.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to discuss the talks publicly.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun’s office said he spoke by phone with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday, with the two discussing developments in Lebanon and the wider West Asia. According to Aoun’s office, the president stressed that implementing the ceasefire must remain the priority and described it as “the essential entry point for transitioning to any other issues”.

Lebanon and Israel held their first direct talks in Washington in more than 30 years in April.

Meanwhile, Israel’s military issued fresh evacuation warnings for southern Lebanon on Friday, prompting hundreds of families to move northward to safer areas.

Israeli troops also clashed with Hezbollah fighters in the villages of Yohmor and Zawtar al-Sharqieh near Nabatieh after crossing the Litani river, which Israeli forces have effectively treated as a boundary line. Despite the April ceasefire, large parts south of the river remain under Israeli military control. Hezbollah said its fighters targeted Israeli troops inside Yohmor during the fighting.

The villages lie close to the Crusader-era Beaufort Castle, located around 15 km from the Israeli border and overlooking broad stretches of southern Lebanon. It remains unclear whether Israeli forces are seeking to capture the site, which lies north of the Litani.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the northern front on Friday and praised the military’s advances. “I must tell you that there are very impressive results here. Our forces have crossed the Litani; they have advanced to controlling positions,” Netanyahu said.

“We are operating in Beirut, in the Bekaa, across the entire width of the front, and we are dealing Hezbollah a crushing blow,” he added, referring to eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley and Beirut’s southern suburbs, which were hit by Israeli strikes on Thursday.

The escalation in southern Lebanon came as US and Iranian negotiators reached a tentative agreement on Thursday to extend the ceasefire in the three-month-old conflict by 60 days and launch a fresh round of discussions on Iran’s nuclear programme, according to a US official familiar with the talks.

Iran did not immediately confirm the reported understanding. US vice-president J.D. Vance later acknowledged a tentative agreement had been reached but said it remained uncertain whether President Donald Trump would approve it.

Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah said any agreement between Tehran and Washington would bring Israel’s offensive in Lebanon to an end. Iranian officials and Hezbollah leaders have maintained that a deal with the US must include a halt to the latest Israel-Hezbollah conflict, which began on 2 March after Hezbollah launched rockets into northern Israel following US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

The latest Israel-Hezbollah war has killed around 3,200 people in Lebanon and displaced more than one million people.

With AP/PTI inputs