Four Israeli Defense Forces soldiers were injured in southern Lebanon on Thursday when a member of an armed group hurled a grenade at them in the town of Beit Yahoun. One combat officer suffered moderate injuries, while a second combat officer and two other soldiers were lightly wounded. All four were evacuated for medical care, and their families were informed, according to the IDF Spokesperson.
The attacker was killed following the grenade assault. The incident unfolded against the backdrop of ongoing US-brokered diplomatic talks between Israel and Lebanon in Washington, which concluded their third day Thursday without producing an agreement.
An Israeli embassy spokesperson told The Times of Israel that both delegations agreed to return to the negotiating table for a fourth day, with talks scheduled to resume Friday at the US State Department. The central sticking point is a proposed partial Israeli pullback from parts of its buffer zone in southern Lebanon — areas US officials had hoped to designate as so-called ‘pilot zones,’ where Lebanese army forces would replace Israeli troops.
An Israeli source told The Times of Israel that any withdrawal would be limited to locations where Hezbollah infrastructure has already been dismantled, and would not affect Israel’s broader six-mile-deep security zone in the region.
Earlier Thursday, both Israeli and Lebanese officials pushed back against a US claim that Israel had already started pulling back from certain positions in southern Lebanon. A US official had reportedly described any such movement as a goodwill gesture toward the Lebanese government during the negotiations.
Adding to the diplomatic tension, both sides have voiced frustration over the US decision to fold the Hezbollah conflict into a memorandum of understanding signed last week with Iran, rather than handling Lebanon as its own separate diplomatic issue.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressed the negotiations Thursday, saying Israel and Lebanon are nearing a ‘commitment of intent,’ though he declined to offer additional specifics about the state of the talks.
