BEIRUT: Lebanon’s health ministry said two paramedics from the Islamic Health Committee were killed and five others wounded on Sunday in two Israeli strikes on the country’s south despite a ceasefire.

As the state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling on a variety of other south Lebanon areas, Israel’s army warned residents of three villages to evacuate, saying it would act forcefully against the Iran-backed group there.

Israel has kept up strikes despite a ceasefire in place since April 17 that was supposed to halt hostilities with Hezbollah, while the militant group has pressed on with its own attacks, mainly on Israeli troops operating in southern Lebanon but also across the border.

A Lebanese health ministry statement said that Israel “directly targeted, with two strikes, two Health Committee sites”, killing one paramedic and wounding three others in Qalaway, and killing another paramedic and wounding two others in Tibnin.

Iraqi man detained for impersonating a security official

The statement decried what it called Israel’s continued “violation of international laws”. The Israeli military said in a statement that on Sunday its forces had struck “more than 20 terror infrastructure” targets in southern Lebanon, including Hezbollah weapons storage facilities and headquarters.

Israel has expanded its strikes in recent days, and the health ministry on Sunday raised the overall death toll from Israeli strikes since war erupted to 2,846 killed, including 108 health and emergency workers.

Israeli raids have killed dozens of people in Lebanon since the ceasefire. Under the terms of the truce released by Washington, Israel reserves the right to act against “planned, imminent or ongoing attacks”.

Its troops are operating behind an Israeli-declared “yellow line” which runs around 10 kilometres (six miles)north of Lebanon’s border. Residents have been warned not to return to the area.

Peace talks

On Saturday, the NNA reported heavy Israeli strikes in various parts of Lebanon including one that killed seven people, and several raids around 20 kilometres south of Beirut outside Hezbollah’s traditional strongholds.

Lebanon and Israel are preparing to hold a third round of talks on May 14-15 in Washington, with veteran Lebanese diplomat Simon Karam recently appointed by President Joseph Aoun to lead his country’s delegation.

A first landmark meeting between the countries, which have no diplomatic relations, was held days before US President Donald Trump announced the ceasefire, while the second round came as he announced a three-week truce extension.

Iraqi man detained

The Lebanese army said on Sunday that it had arrested an Iraqi national for impersonating an Iraqi security official in Lebanon, the second alleged high-level imposter caught in recent months.

A military source said that the man had managed to network with Lebanese security and intelligence officials, telling them he worked at Iraq’s Beirut embassy.

The scandals have highlighted the fragility of Lebanon’s institutions, which are built on a sect-based power-sharing system in a country rife with foreign interference, and where personal connections often play a key role in gaining influence, money and privilege.

An army statement said the Iraqi man was arrested “for impersonating an Iraqi security official on Lebanese territory, as a result of a surveillance and security follow-up operation”.

Preliminary investigations indicate that the man was using “forged documents”, the statement said, adding that the military uniform he had been using was seized.

The military source said that the man “is married to a Lebanese woman and managed to get close to an intelligence official in Beirut, presenting himself as an Iraqi officer in the counter-terrorism branch, and a security attache at the Iraqi embassy”.

The Lebanese intelligence official allegedly helped the man “make contact with security and military officials and meet them”, the source said.

The suspect actually works at a popular cafe on the airport road in Beirut’s southern suburbs, the source added, after he started out there doing valet parking.

A judicial official said that the suspect was undergoing questioning and had ties with officers in Lebanon’s army intelligence branch and some security agencies.

He had held meetings with security officers in restaurants, parks and other public locations, the official said, adding that he allegedly promised some of them to arrange Iraqi-government-funded religious tourism trips to Karbala. It is the second recent high-level impersonation case to rock Lebanon.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2026