Israeli

The Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors to the United States arrived at the State Department in Washington for their countries’ first direct talks in decades. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is hosting the discussions.

Rescuers are digging through rubble after a new wave of Israeli strikes across southern Lebanon killed at least 13 people. The attacks hit multiple towns in the Tyre and Nabatieh districts. The death toll from Israeli attacks in Lebanon climbs above 2,000.

Israeli forces storm camps and villages in an overnight raid across the occupied West Bank arresting more than 22 Palestinians. This comes days after Israel approved 34 new illegal settlements.

A negative political and public reaction in Israel to the ceasefire with Iran, despite the respite it brings.

No pause for Israel’s army, however – or its victims. Hundreds have been killed in Lebanon, with more dead in Gaza.

Is Israel a society effectively on a permanent war footing?

Presenter: Tom McRae

Guests:

Ilan Pappe – Historian and professor at Exeter University

Gideon Levy – Columnist at Haaretz newspaper in Tel Aviv

Haim Bresheeth – Professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

Lebanon’s Health Ministry says more than 2,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since March 2.

Israeli strikes have killed at least 18 people across southern Lebanon, as Lebanese authorities reported that the overall death toll from the war that began last month between Israel and Lebanese group Hezbollah has surpassed 2,000.

Israeli strikes on a village near Sidon in southern Lebanon killed at least eight people and wounded nine others, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said on Saturday.

Earlier, it said that at least 10 people, including three emergency workers, had been killed in Israeli strikes in the Nabatieh district.

In its latest tally, the Health Ministry reported that at least 2,020 people have been killed and 6,436 others wounded since Lebanon was drawn into the US-Israel war on Iran on March 2. Hezbollah launched rocket fire at Israel in support of its backer Iran, sparking massive Israeli strikes and a ground invasion.

Meanwhile, Israeli media reported that two Israeli soldiers were wounded during clashes with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon on Saturday.

Israel’s Channel 13, citing the military, said the two soldiers from the Paratroopers Brigade sustained moderate injuries from shrapnel during the confrontation.

The violence comes as Iran-backed Hezbollah renewed its rejection of direct negotiations between Israel and Lebanon aimed at ending the war.

President Joseph Aoun’s office said on Friday that officials from Lebanon, Israel and the United States would meet next week in Washington “to discuss declaring a ceasefire and the start date for negotiations between Lebanon and Israel under US auspices”.

Hundreds of people gathered on Saturday near the government headquarters in central Beirut in support of Hezbollah and to protest against the talks with Israel, some waving the group’s yellow flags or the Iranian standard.

Demonstrator Ruqaya Msheik said the protest was a message that Lebanon “will not be Israeli”.

“Whoever wants peace with Israel is not Lebanese,” she said, adding: “Those who shake hands with the enemy … are Zionists.”

Hezbollah and its ally, the Amal Movement, issued a statement calling on supporters to avoid demonstrating “at this delicate stage”, citing interests of “stability, the protection of civil peace and avoiding any division that the Israeli enemy seeks”.

Earlier, Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said the decision to hold direct talks with Israel was “a blatant violation of the [national] pact, the constitution and Lebanese laws”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that any peace agreement reached with Lebanon must “last for generations” and also call for Hezbollah’s disarmament.

After a ceasefire was announced between the US and Iran this week, Washington and Tehran have been at odds over whether it also applies to Israel’s bombardment and invasion of Lebanon.

The dispute arose during the historic in-person ceasefire talks held in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, between the US and Iran on Saturday afternoon.

Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem, reporting from Tehran, said that Iran was able to secure “a kind of guarantee from the US that Israel is going to decrease its attacks on Lebanon”.

However, he said that “nothing [has] been confirmed … from Israel, with respect to Lebanon.” While “there have been fewer attacks on Beirut and the southern suburbs,” nothing has been “announced with respect to a ceasefire”, he said.

Dozens gathered in Madrid for a vigil honouring the victims of Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon a day after a ceasefire was announced between the US and Iran. The strikes killed 357 people according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

An early-morning strike hits a group of civilians in ​​Bureij camp as drones attack a tent in Khan Younis displacement site.

At least seven Palestinians have been killed, and others wounded, in Israeli strikes across the central and southern Gaza Strip.

An Israeli drone fired two missiles close to a police post in Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for Gaza’s civil defence rescue service told the AFP news agency on Saturday.

Medical sources confirmed the early morning attack to Al Jazeera, saying the strike hit a group of civilians in the “Block 9” area of Bureij. Several people were killed and seriously wounded, they said.

Ambulance crews faced difficult conditions as they worked to transport the bodies and those injured to nearby hospitals, the sources added.

The al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza told AFP it had received six bodies and seven wounded people, including four in critical condition. The nearby al-Awda hospital said it received one fatality and two wounded people.

Separately, in the southern Gaza Strip, Nasser Medical Complex said it received three wounded people following an Israeli drone strike against a tent of displaced people in the town of Bani Suheila, located east of Khan Younis.

Al Jazeera’s correspondent on the ground also reported Israeli artillery shelling and heavy tank fire near Bani Suheila and east of Gaza City.

Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has killed more than 72,300 people since it began in October 2023, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, including at least 738 since the so-called ceasefire went into effect last October.

The tally includes at least 32 deaths since the start of April alone – among them Al Jazeera journalist Mohammed Wishah, who was killed in an attack west of Gaza City earlier this week.

United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk on Friday condemned Israel’s recent violence in the Gaza Strip, saying that “the unrelenting pattern of killings” reflects Israel’s “sweeping impunity”.

“For the past 10 days, Palestinians are still being killed and injured in what is left of their homes, shelters and tents of displaced families, on the streets, in vehicles, at a medical facility and a classroom,” Turk said.

West Bank raids, arrests continue

Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers and forces stormed homes and villages throughout the morning, continuing an escalating campaign to expand their illegal settlements.

The Palestinian Wafa news agency reported that Israeli forces arrested seven people east of Qalqilya and separately descended upon Bir al-Basha, near the city of Jenin, where they detained various residents and interrogated them.

In al-Maniya, southeast of Bethlehem, Israeli settlers fanned out across the streets, shone spotlights inside homes and provoked residents.

Another group of settlers set fire to a house in the village of Duma in the Nablus governorate, according to village council head Suleiman Dawabsheh.

Residents managed to control the fire and prevent it from spreading, Dawabsheh said.

Israeli media outlets have reported the recent secret approval of 34 new illegal West Bank settlements, adding to 68 that have been endorsed since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government rose to power in 2022.

Various foreign governments and organisations, including the European Union, Turkiye, Sweden and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, have condemned the move as a flagrant violation of international law.

Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets at northern Israel, damaging a 1,500-year-old Byzantine church in Nahariya. The attack comes after weeks of heavy Israeli bombardment across Lebanon.

Palestinian journalist Muath Amarne said his prosthetic eye fell out after an infection while in Israeli detention, leaving him in urgent need of surgery. Amarne, who lost his left eye in 2019 after being struck by an Israeli rubber bullet, was held in prison for more than seven months.

Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warns ‘time is running out’ amid Israel’s continuing attacks on Lebanon.

Israeli settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem shortly after it reopened following 40 days of closure.

The UNIFIL announced that an investigation has concluded that three Indonesian peacekeepers were killed by a shell fired from an Israeli tank.

According to UNIFIL, analysis of the impact site and recovered shrapnel confirmed that the projectile was a 120mm shell fired from an Israeli Merkava tank, launched from the east toward the town of Taybeh.

The mission noted that it had previously provided the Israeli army with the coordinates of all its positions and facilities on 6^th March and again on 22^nd March, as part of efforts to reduce risks to its personnel.

In a related incident, UNIFIL reported that the Israeli army detained one of its peacekeepers after intercepting a logistics convoy, before releasing him less than an hour later following urgent contacts by UN command.

The mission condemned the detention as a “flagrant violation of international law,” stressing that any obstruction of peacekeeping operations breaches UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which guarantees freedom of movement for UN forces in southern Lebanon.

Separately, UNIFIL confirmed that another peacekeeper was killed on 29^th March when a shell struck a UN position near Adshit al-Qusayr, with another seriously wounded. At the time, the source of the shell was unknown, prompting the investigation.

The findings come amid ongoing Israeli aggression on Lebanon and heightened risks facing UN peacekeeping forces operating in the area.

Protesters have blocked roads outside the Israeli embassy in London, condemning Israel’s violent strikes on Lebanon which killed hundreds across the country on the day the US-Iran ceasefire was announced. Many demonstrators also expressed solidarity with Iranians and Palestinians who have all suffered under Israeli bombardment.

Israeli forces have launched an intense bombardment across Lebanon, killing hundreds of people, hours after a two-week ceasefire was announced in the United States-Iran war.

Lebanon’s Civil Defence said at least 254 people were killed and 1,165 others were wounded in air strikes that targeted areas in Beirut, the Bekaa Valley, Mount Lebanon, Sidon, and several villages in southern Lebanon.

The Israeli military said that the attack was its largest coordinated assault on Lebanon since it started a new military operation in the country on March 2, “targeting more than 100 Hezbollah command centres and military sites”.

In a written statement, the head of Lebanon’s syndicate of doctors, Elias Chlela, urgently called for “all physicians from all specialities” to head to any hospital they could to offer help, with one of Beirut’s biggest hospitals saying it needed donations of all blood types.

Here’s how the world has reacted to the attacks:

Lebanon

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri called the attacks on densely populated areas a “full-fledged war crime.”

⁠“Today’s crime, coinciding with the ceasefire agreement declared in the region — an agreement that Israel and its political and security apparatus have failed to uphold — is a serious test for the international community and a blatant challenge to all international laws, norms, and conventions, which Israel violates daily through its unprecedented campaign of human assassination in modern history,” Berri said.

“It is also a test for all Lebanese — political, religious, and civil leaders — to unite in solidarity with the martyrs. May God have mercy on the martyrs, grant a speedy recovery to the wounded, and protect Lebanon,” he added.

Hezbollah

The Lebanese armed group said it had a “right” to respond to the attacks.

“We affirm that the blood of the martyrs and the wounded will not be shed in vain, and that today’s massacres, like all acts of aggression and savage crimes, confirm our natural and legal right to resist the occupation and respond to its aggression,” Hezbollah said in a statement.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah told the news agency Reuters that the Israeli strikes were “a grave violation of the ceasefire”, adding there would be “repercussions for the entire agreement” if they continued.

Israel

Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israel “insisted on separating the war with Iran with the fighting in Lebanon in order to change the reality in Lebanon”.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also told a news conference that Israel would “continue to strike” Lebanon as the US-Iran ceasefire did not apply to Hezbollah.

Iran

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned that it will respond to the attacks on Lebanon if Israel does not stop the assault.

“We issue a firm warning to the United States, which violates treaties, and to its Zionist ally, its executioner: if the aggression against beloved Lebanon does not cease immediately, we will fulfil our duty and deliver a response,” the IRGC said in a statement carried on Iran’s state-owned TV channel, using a reference to Israel.

In a post on X, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the terms of the ceasefire were “clear and explicit: the US must choose — ceasefire or continued war via Israel. It cannot have both.”

“The world sees the massacres in Lebanon. The ball is in the US court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments,” he added.

Qatar

The foreign ministry condemned the “brutal series” of Israeli attacks on Lebanon that had killed hundreds of people, calling the attacks a “dangerous escalation and a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of the sister Lebanese Republic, the rules of international humanitarian law, and United Nations Security Council Resolution (1701).”

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs calls on the international community to fulfill its responsibilities by compelling the Israeli occupation authorities to halt their barbaric massacres and repeated attacks on Lebanon, and to hold them accountable for respecting international covenants and laws,” a statement posted on X read.

It added that Qatar was in “full solidarity” with Lebanon.

Egypt

The Ministry of Foreign Affiars called Israel’s attacks on Lebanon had a “premediatated intent” to undermine regional and international efforts to reduce escalation.

The ministry added that the attacks were an attempt by Israel to drag the region into “total chaos”.

Spain

In a post on X, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Netanyahu’s “contempt for life and international law is intolerable” in light of the attacks.

“It’s time to speak clearly: – Lebanon must be included in the ceasefire. – The international community must condemn this new violation of international law. – The European Union must suspend its Association Agreement with Israel. – And there must be no impunity for these criminal acts,” Sanchez said.

Italy

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said he spoke to the Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and expressed solidarity for the “unjustified and unacceptable attacks he is suffering from Israel.”

“We want to avoid there being a second Gaza. We will reiterate this concept to the Israeli Ambassador as well, whom I have summoned to the Farnesina. We condemn the bombings on the Lebanese civilian population, including the gunfire incidents suffered by our UNIFIL [UN Interim Force in Lebanon] troops, for which we continue to demand guarantees of total safety. We must absolutely avoid any further expansion of the conflict that would jeopardise the ceasefire in Iran and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz,” Tajani added.

United Nations

The deputy spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Farhan Haq, said the UN “strongly condemns” Israel’s attacks on Lebanon.

“The United Nations strongly condemns the strikes by Israel across Lebanon that resulted in significant civilian casualties,” said Haq.

“We continue to call on all sides to avail themselves of diplomatic channels, cease hostilities”, and use the new US-Iran ceasefire as an opportunity to prevent further loss of life,” he added.

Israel has backed a ceasefire between the US and Iran but made clear it does not extend to Lebanon. Al Jazeera’s Heidi Pett reports that as Israeli strikes continue, residents remain wary after repeated violations of past ceasefires and ongoing displacement.

Israeli forces raided the Muslim Youth Association in Hebron, firing tear gas at Palestinians and shutting down the group’s headquarters. Troops confiscated and destroyed equipment during the raid.

Political analyst Trita Parsi says no one should be surprised that Iran has rejected the idea of a ceasefire deal with the US and Israel, given their history of violating previous agreements.

WHO driver Majdi Aslan was killed and a WHO doctor wounded, along with several other Palestinians, medical sources said.

A member of staff from the World Health Organization (WHO) has been killed in Gaza and several others injured when the Israeli army fired on their vehicle, according to sources, including an Al Jazeera correspondent.

WHO driver Majdi Aslan, 54, was killed on Monday. A doctor from the international organisation and several other Palestinians were also injured in the incident in eastern Khan Younis, according to sources at the enclave’s Nasser and Al-Aqsa hospitals.

As the world’s attention remains fixed on the United States-Israel war on Iran, Israel is continuing its attacks on the Gaza Strip, which has seen near-daily Israeli fire and strikes since a fragile ceasefire was reached in October, with more than 700 Palestinians killed since, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Monday’s incident took place in an area close to the so-called yellow line in eastern Khan Younis, reported Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud.

Israeli forces shot “indiscriminately” at people and vehicles moving along the Salah al-Din Street in the southern Gaza Strip, he said.

A commercial vehicle was transporting civilians between southern and central Gaza. It was followed by a car carrying WHO employees, said Mahmoud.

“The driver was shot in the head, and by the time he was transported to the Al-Aqsa Hospital, he was announced dead,” the correspondent reported from Gaza City. Seven or so others suffered injuries, he added.

Translation: Qamar Majdi Mustafa Aslan (54 years old), a resident of Bureij camp, who ascended after being wounded in a shooting targeting a World Health Organization vehicle on Salah al-Din Street east of Khan Younis city.

WHO did not immediately confirm that the man killed was an employee, but said in a statement emailed to Al Jazeera that “this morning, a critical security incident occurred in Gaza that is under review by relevant authorities”.

“As [a] result of this critical security incident, today’s medical evacuation from Gaza via Rafah to Egypt has been put on hold with immediate effect, until further notice,” the statement added.

WHO has been overseeing coordination between Egypt and Israel since the opening of the Rafah crossing, which has allowed small numbers of injured Palestinians desperate for medical aid to leave to seek treatment abroad.

Israel has, however, continued to limit the entry of humanitarian aid into the besieged territory, also shutting the vital crossing in the early days of the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Elsewhere on Monday in the southern part of Khan Younis, a Palestinian man with special needs was killed after being shot by Israeli soldiers.

To the north, a drone attack in Gaza City killed one person, Mahmoud said.

“The target was an electric bike … moving in the area that was struck by drone missiles. It killed … a 36-year-old individual who was moving … around the displacement camps,” he reported.

A child was also injured in the attack and is now in critical condition in hospital, the correspondent added.

Two Palestinians were also killed in Israeli drone strikes on the Yarmouk and Shujayea neighbourhoods, according to a medical source at al-Shifa Hospital.

Sources at Gaza hospitals have reported the deaths of eight Palestinians in Israeli air strikes outside areas under Israeli control since Sunday.

Several Palestinians were rushed to hospital with severe injuries after an Israeli air strike hit a crowd near the Al Jazeera Club in central Gaza City. Near-daily Israeli attacks have killed more than 700 people since the so-called “ceasefire” entered into effect in October 2025.

The Israeli Air Force has released a picture of F-16I Sufa fighters taking part in strikes on Iran, and the jets appear to be carrying cluster munitions. What submunitions might be inside is unknown. However, just three days before the image was posted, Iranian officials accused the United States of employing air-dropped BLU-91/B anti-tank mines, which are delivered via cluster bomb. This seems most likely to be part of a limited-use area denial strategy to contain long-range missile launches, as you can read about in our previous reporting here.

“In parallel, the Air Force struck sites used for storing and launching ballistic missiles, which pose a direct threat to the citizens of the State of Israel, as well as several defense systems of the terror regime. More than 150 fighter jets struck, over the past day, weapons production sites throughout Tehran,” the Israeli Air Force wrote in a Hebrew language post on X accompanying the picture on March 29, according to a machine translation. “The strikes on the regime’s military industries in Tehran continue at this hour as well. The Air Force continues to deepen the strikes on the regime’s military industries in order to deny the production capabilities it has built up over [the] years.”

The picture, seen at the top of this story and in parts below, is a nighttime shot, making it hard to definitively identify the munitions under the wings of the F-16Is. However, they look to have blunt noses with prominent fuzes sticking out from the center, as well as largely straight bodies and flat tail ends. This is all in line with features typically seen on air-dropped cluster munitions, especially U.S. types that make use of variants of the Tactical Munitions Dispenser (TMD), which we will come back to later on. TMDs, as well as other types of bomb-shaped ‘dispensers,’ can be loaded with different payloads, and each specific configuration generally has its own designation.

It is possible that the munitions seen under the wings of the F-16I are not cluster bombs, but this seems less likely to be the case. The features that are visible are distinctly different from the kinds of precision-guided bombs and missiles more typically seen loaded on Israeli tactical jets.

In terms of what submunitions might be inside the dispensers, as already noted, Iran has previously alleged the use of air-dropped BLU-91/B anti-tank mines, which it blamed on the United States. Reports about the employment of the mines first emerged last week, with Iranian state and quasi-state media publishing what it said were pictures of examples recovered in outlying areas around the city of Shiraz, as seen below.

جنایت جدید آمریکایی ـ صهیونی در برخی مناطق کشور

رهاسازی بسته‌های انفجاری با جنگنده

این بسته‌های انفجاری شبیه کنسرو آماده بوده و حاوی مواد منفجره‌ای است که بعد از بازگشایی منفجر شده و باعث تلفات جانی می‌گردد
#انتقام_سخت pic.twitter.com/0mChpxVhLP

— خبرگزاری تسنیم (@Tasnimnews_Fa) March 26, 2026

Part of a larger scatterable mine system called Gator, BLU-91/Bs, as well as a companion anti-personnel mine designated the BLU-92/B, can be employed via TMD-series dispensers. They can also be dropped using the Mk 7 or SUU-58/B dispensers, the former of which has a notably different nose shape from what is seen in the picture the IAF released. The SUU-58/B is derived from the Mk 7, but has a distinct nose profile. Examples of complete cluster munitions loaded with Gator mines include the CBU-78/B (45 BLU-91/Bs and 15 BLU-92/Bs loaded in either a Mk 7 or SUU-58/B) and the CBU-89/B (72 BLU-91/Bs and 22 BLU-92/Bs loaded in a SUU-64/B TMD).

“The US is the only participant in the Iran war known to possess Gator Scatterable Mines,” Bellingcat reported last week. However, “known users of the CBU-89/B and the CBU-78/B weapons include Israel, the Netherlands, and the United States,” according to a 2003 report from Forecast International.

The F-16 is also on the broad list of platforms that can drop cluster munitions loaded with Gator mines.

As to why BLU-91/Bs might have been scattered over parts of Iran, as TWZ previously wrote:

“Iran has been able to preserve a number of its missile launchers, which could involve moving them in and out of underground facilities like the one near Shiraz or hiding them elsewhere in the area and moving them to designated launch points. This is occurring even after these facilities have been repeatedly bombed. These aerial attacks have focused on keeping their entrances caved in. These strikes are on top of the vast, resource-consuming interdiction effort to hunt for and strike launchers that are exposed. So, continued launches from these areas would be a major reason why resorting to deploying anti-tank mines there makes sense and would have a high military value. Mining the entrances of the underground missile cities would also make it harder for heavy equipment to access them in order to open them back up.“

🚨 WATCH: CENTCOM releases footage of strikes on fortified missile bases in southern Iran. The first footage includes hits on tunnel entrances and on mobile and stationary launchers at the missile base in Hajjiabad, Iran. pic.twitter.com/wuoi5GEhqp

— Major Sammer Pal Toorr (Infantry Combat Veteran) (@samartoor3086) March 22, 2026

The IDF publishes footage showing a recent airstrike on an Iranian ballistic missile launcher in western Iran that it says was primed for an attack on Israel.

In additional strikes yesterday, the military says the Israeli Air Force hit several ballistic missile storage and… pic.twitter.com/UVE5bTAJNd

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) March 24, 2026

CENTCOM:

The Iranian regime is using mobile launchers to indiscriminately fire missiles in an attempt to inflict maximum harm across the region.

U.S. forces are hunting these threats down and without apology or hesitation, we are taking them out.pic.twitter.com/l4lxbTlAf4

— Clash Report (@clashreport) March 3, 2026

“Designed to attack tanks and trucks, the mines could destroy or disable the launchers and likely the payloads they carry. They could also make roads to and around the underground missile cities unpassable. Even limiting where the launchers could go within these areas could make them more vulnerable.“

This would also align with the IAF’s post on X accompanying the image of the two F-16Is, which discussed new strikes on “sites used for storing and launching ballistic missiles.”

Israel does have, or at least had, other air-dropped cluster munitions in its inventory. The IAF employed Cold War-era CBU-58/Bs during the country’s intervention in Lebanon in 2006. Each of those munitions consists of 650 grenade-like BLU-63/B anti-personnel bomblets in a SUU-30-series dispenser, which has a distinctly tapered tail section that is not seen on the munitions in the recently released IAF picture. Israel has also received Rockeye cluster bombs from the United States in the past, which consist of 247 Mk 118 anti-tank bomblets in Mk 7-series dispensers. The current status of either of these munitions in Israeli service is unclear.

Israel Military Industries (IMI) also previously developed an air-dropped cluster bomb called the Runway Attack Munition, which is filled with submunitions specifically designed to crater runways. The RAM has reportedly been in Israeli service since 2008.

Runways at Iranian air bases have been cratered by U.S. and Israeli strikes in the course of the current conflict, but there have been no signs so far of the use of cluster munitions to do so. Israel could be employing anti-personnel and/or anti-tank cluster munitions against various other targets in Iran, including missile and drone launchers, but, again, there has been no evidence of this so far.

The employment of BLU-91/Bs in the current conflict with Iran also remains unconfirmed, though the picture of the IAF F-16Is with what look to be cluster munitions does add to the existing evidence. Whether the employment of those mines, whether by the United States or Israel, was an isolated event or a new part of the ongoing campaign is also still not clear. As mentioned earlier, dropping the mines fits with an effort to deny access to remote missile storage and launch areas.

Cluster munitions and landmines are both controversial weapons in their own right, particularly given the risks they can pose to civilians well after a conflict has ended. Many countries have agreed to ban their use. At the same time, the U.S. military and others continue to stress the operational utility these weapons offer, and the steps that can be taken to mitigate the risks of their use. The BLU-91/B, for instance, has a built-in self-destruct feature. Cluster munitions and landmines can also be employed under tightly controlled parameters to reduce the dangers they might pose to innocent bystanders, such as targeting only facilities far from population centers.

If cluster munition use by Israeli and/or U.S. forces does become a more widespread aspect of the ongoing conflict, more evidence of this could continue to emerge.

Special thanks to user @blocksixtynine on X for bringing the IAF picture of the two F-16Is carrying what look to be cluster munitions to our attention.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

Lebanese armed group Hezbollah fires projectiles at northern Israel while Israeli troops push deeper into southern Lebanon.

Israeli strikes across southern Lebanon and the capital, Beirut, have killed at least 14 people, a day after Israel threatened to hit Lebanon’s main border crossing with Syria, forcing its closure.

Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sunday killed at least four people while 10 people – including a family of six – were killed in Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon.

A further 39 people were wounded in an Israeli strike on Beirut’s Jnah neighbourhood, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health. The strike hit about 100 metres (330ft) from Rafik Hariri University Hospital, the country’s largest public medical facility, a medical source told the AFP news agency.

Israel has launched air strikes across Lebanon since March 2 after the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel in response to the United States-Israeli war on Iran. Israeli forces have also launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah on Sunday claimed to have fired a cruise missile at an Israeli warship 126km (78 miles) off the Lebanese coast. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Al Jazeera was not able to verify the claim.

Although most Israeli strikes against Hezbollah have been conducted by jets and drones, some have come by sea.

In a statement, the Israeli military warned it had “begun striking Hezbollah infrastructure sites” in Beirut’s southern suburbs without providing evidence for its claims.

On Saturday, Israel said it would carry out strikes on the Masnaa border crossing between Lebanon and Syria. Masnaa serves as a vital trade route for both countries and a key gateway to the rest of the region for Lebanese people.

The border post was quickly evacuated on the Lebanese side, and the site was virtually deserted early on Sunday with only a few guards still on duty, according to AFP.

In Syria, Mazen Aloush with the General Authority for Borders and Customs insisted that the crossing, known as Jdeidet Yabous on the Syrian side, was “exclusively for civilian use and is not used for any military purposes”.

Aloush said traffic through the crossing would be temporarily suspended due to the Israeli threat.

Israeli attacks on Lebanon since March 2 have killed more than 1,400 people, including 126 children, and displaced over 1.2 million, according to Lebanese authorities.

In the southern Lebanese town of Kfar Hatta, an Israeli strike killed seven people including a four-year-old girl and a Lebanese soldier, the Health Ministry said on Sunday.

The previous evening, the Israeli army issued a forced evacuation order for the town, where many displaced people from other parts of southern Lebanon have fled.

In another air strike on southern Lebanon, at least three people were killed and others injured early on Sunday, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported.

As Israeli troops push deeper across their border into southern Lebanon and destroy villages, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun reiterated his call for talks with Israel, saying he wanted to spare southern Lebanon from destruction on the scale seen in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

“Why don’t we negotiate … until we can at least save the homes that have not yet been destroyed?” he proposed in a televised address on Sunday.