Israeli airstrikes target south Lebanon, causing casualties

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched strikes on several towns in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, resulting in multiple casualties, according to the Lebanese National News Agency.

Two Lebanese soldiers were wounded Tuesday when an Israeli airstrike struck an army patrol during a rescue operation in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese army said. The army said its patrol had arrived at the site of an earlier Israeli strike in the town of Majdal Zoun, Tyre district, where it was working to help evacuate three members of the Civil Defense. It said the patrol came under a renewed attack while rescue efforts were underway. The Civil Defense said it is coordinating with the Lebanese army to evacuate the trapped personnel.

Elsewhere in southern Lebanon, at least three people were killed and others wounded in a series of Israeli airstrikes, according to Lebanese civil defense authorities.

The authorities also noted that the cumulative death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks from March 2 through April 28 has reached 2,534, with 7,863 people wounded.

Israel claimed on Tuesday that it had struck and destroyed two Hezbollah tunnels in southern Lebanon, as part of a broader effort to dismantle the group's underground infrastructure near the Israeli border.

The Israeli military said the tunnels, located in the Qantara area about 10 kilometers from the border, stretched a combined length of about two kilometers and formed part of a larger underground network.

According to the military, troops found weapons, living quarters, water tanks, and equipment for prolonged stays inside the tunnels. The tunnels were used mainly to house Hezbollah operatives, with one containing about 10 sleeping rooms, it said.

The IDF also issued evacuation orders for 16 villages in southern Lebanon.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that he had ordered the military to launch a special operation two weeks earlier to address the drone threat from Hezbollah.

The military claimed that its air defense units had intercepted several drones originating from southern Lebanon. Furthermore, two IDF soldiers were injured in a drone attack on Monday; one sustained serious injuries while the other was lightly wounded.

The injured soldiers were taken to hospitals for treatment.

The violence continued despite a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon that took effect at midnight between April 16 and 17, after weeks of intensified cross-border fighting linked to the wider regional conflict involving Iran and Israel-backed operations.

Israeli airstrikes target south Lebanon, causing casualties

A mainland spokesperson on Wednesday lashed out at the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities of China's Taiwan region for serving as an ATM for the United States, warning that the separatist push for Taiwan secession is doomed to fail no matter how many weapons they purchase.

The warning came after Taiwan defense authorities announced that they had signed six major arms procurement deals worth more than 6.6 billion U.S. dollars with the United States.

"We firmly oppose any form of military ties between the United States and China's Taiwan region," Chen Binhua, a spokesman for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, said at a press conference in Beijing.

"The DPP authorities, out of their own secessionist political interests, have been acting willingly as an ATM for the U.S. military-industrial complex. Begging for unreliable protection from external forces will only push Taiwan into a more dangerous situation and inflict great sufferings on our compatriots in Taiwan," Chen said.

"We sternly warn the DPP authorities that the reunification of the motherland is an unstoppable historical trend, and no matter how many weapons they purchase, it will not alter the eventual failure of their Taiwan secession attempts," Chen said.

Arms purchase from U.S. won't avert doomed failure of Taiwan secession: mainland spokesperson