More than 10,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed in Lebanon since a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah, the head of the country’s National Council for Scientific Research said on Wednesday.
“Since the current ceasefire… we have witnessed 5,386 housing units that were completely destroyed, and 5,246 housing units damaged,” CRNS chief Chadi Abdallah told a news conference broadcast by local media.
Israel has kept up heavy airstrikes despite the April 17 ceasefire, and Israeli soldiers are operating inside an Israeli-declared “yellow line”, which runs around 10 kilometres (six miles) north of the Israel-Lebanon border where troops have been carrying out broad demolition operations.
– Civil defence funeral –
In Sidon, an AFP correspondent saw dozens of mourners at the funeral for two Lebanese civil defence personnel killed in an Israeli strike a day earlier.
Fellow civil defence personnel holding Lebanese flags lined up for an honour guard as the coffins passed, also draped in the national flag, with a rescue helmet and flak jacket placed on top.
This week Beirut asked Washington to pressure Israel to halt its strikes ahead of the talks on Thursday and Friday.
Veteran diplomat Simon Karam will head the talks for Lebanon for the first time, as Washington seeks a historic breakthrough between the two sides despite the ongoing hostilities.
On Tuesday, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem warned that his fighters would turn the battlefield into “hell” for Israel.
Since Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the wider regional war in early March, authorities say more than 2,800 people have been killed, including at least 200 children.
Hezbollah says the toll includes its fighters.