Israeli strike kills Lebanese security forces as Israel and Hezbollah trade fire ahead of talks

A Hezbollah supporter waves a flag with the portrait of the late Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah during a protest against the Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, in front the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, April 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla) 2026-04-10T17:05:55Z Beirut (AP) — Attacks intensified Friday between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah ahead of direct talks between the Lebanese government and Israel set to begin next week. At least 13 members of Lebanon’s State Security forces were killed in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon Friday, while Hezbollah claimed an attack targeting a naval base in the Israeli port city of Ashdod some 90 miles away from the border. Israel launched strikes across several towns in southern Lebanon, including one on a government building in the southern city of Nabatieh that killed the government security personnel. Hezbollah claimed 31 other attacks on northern Israel and on Israeli ground troops that have invaded southern Lebanon. Israel launched its latest aerial campaign and a ground invasion of southern Lebanon after Hezbollah fired rockets toward northern Israel in solidarity with Iran, its key ally and patron, on March 2. At least 1,888 people in Lebanon have been killed in Israeli strikes, according to the Health Ministry. At least 303 were killed in a rapid series of 100 strikes that hit the country — including multiple areas in dense residential and commercial areas in central Beirut — in 10 minutes on Wednesday, the bloodiest day in the latest war between the two sides. Civil Defense first responders are still searching for bodies trapped under the rubble in the Lebanese capital. Meanwhile, officials at Beirut’s main government-run hospital on the southern edge of the capital fear it could be in the line of fire after the Israeli military issued an evacuation warning for the surrounding suburbs, including the busy neighborhood of Jnah where the hospital is located. Israel has launched attacks in Jnah, both with and without warning. (