Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon on Saturday killed at least seven people, including two children, coming just hours after reports of a ceasefire agreement had surfaced. <\/p>\n
The persistent fighting threatened an\u00a0interim agreement between the United States and Iran\u00a0to end the\u00a0war in the Middle East, News.Az<\/a> reports, citing Irish news.<\/a><\/p>\n Lebanon\u2019s National News Agency said the strikes hit the southern town of Nabatiyeh and nearby villages. At least seven people remained trapped under the rubble, it said.<\/p>\n Mediators were scrambling to halt the fighting between Israel and the militant Lebanese Hezbollah group, after a heavy exchange on Friday killed at least 47 people in Lebanon and four Israeli soldiers.<\/p>\n An Israeli military official said Hezbollah had fired more than 50 projectiles at Israeli forces in southern Lebanon overnight, prompting the military to start targeting the militant group there.<\/p>\n On Friday, Israeli ambassador to Washington, Yechiel Leiter, said on X that Israel \u201cremains firmly committed to an immediate ceasefire\u201d if Hezbollah honours the agreement and ceases hostilities<\/a>.<\/p>\n In public statements, Hezbollah has said it would abide by a ceasefire if Israel did, but has not said a ceasefire was actually in place.<\/p>\n A Hezbollah official said on Friday after reports of a ceasefire deal emerged that efforts were under way by Qatar, the US and Iran to broker an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire but stopped short of confirming a deal had been reached.<\/p>\n Hezbollah and Israel went to war just days after the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28, with Hezbollah firing rockets and drones at civilian communities in northern Israel and Israel seizing large swaths of southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n The interim US-Iran agreement signed this week has already reopened the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran had closed as the war unfolded, cutting off the global economy from significant supplies of oil and natural gas.<\/p>\n