Israel and Hezbollah trade fire, as Trump says US–Iran talks continue

An Israeli air strike hit Qlaileh village on Tuesday. (AP: Mohammed Zaatari)

Israel has continued to attack southern Lebanon despite a de-escalation deal with militant group Hezbollah.

US President Donald Trump announced the agreement would stop Israeli attacks on Beirut and Hezbollah attacks on Israeli territory.

But Lebanese state media has reported strikes at about 30 locations in the country's south since.

Israel has continued to strike southern Lebanon as Iran-backed Hezbollah has attacked its troops despite a US-brokered de-escalation deal in place between Lebanon and Israel.

US President Donald Trump announced on Monday an agreement to halt some attacks, but neither side publicly accepted it, and Israel's defence minister said the Lebanese capital's southern suburbs remained potential targets.

The deal, according to a statement from the Lebanese embassy in Washington, would, at first, stop Israeli attacks on Beirut and Hezbollah attacks on Israeli territory.

Senior Hezbollah official Mahmud Qomati told AFP in a written statement the group "will not accept a partial ceasefire".

"The Zionist enemy should know that any aggression against the suburbs could lead to a deeper and stronger response" from the group, he added.

Lebanon's state media reported Israeli strikes, some of them deadly, on about 30 locations across the nation's south on Tuesday.

Hezbollah, meanwhile, said it attacked Israeli troops in southern Lebanese lands they occupied. However, it has not claimed responsibility for attacks in Israel.

Rescuers work at the site of a damaged building and hospital in the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, on Monday. (AP Photo)

The Israeli military said it intercepted two projectiles from Lebanon, without reporting any injuries.

Near Sidon, in Lebanon's south, rescuers recovered the bodies of six members of the same family, including two children and a woman, following an Israeli strike.

Further south in the historic city of Tyre, the Jabal Amel hospital, severely damaged by an Israeli attack nearby on Monday that wounded 39 staff, resumed operations.

Lebanon's health ministry said on Tuesday that Israeli attacks had killed at least 3,468 people since March 2, an increase of 35 compared to Monday.

At least 26 Israeli soldiers and one civilian contractor have been killed over the same time frame.

The attacks came as Mr Trump said conversations between the United States and Iran had been going on continuously and that reports the two sides had stopped speaking a few days ago were "false and erroneous".

He said "one never knows" wher