Middle East latest: Israel apologizes for strike that killed 3 Lebanese soldiers

The Israeli military apologized Monday for a strike that killed three Lebanese soldiers in southern Lebanon, saying it is not battling the country's military and its troops believed they were targeting a vehicle belonging to the Hezbollah militant group.

Israeli strikes meanwhile hit nearly a dozen branches of a Hezbollah-run financial institution that Israel says is used to fund attacks but where many ordinary people keep their savings.

Last week, Hezbollah said it is entering a new phase in its fight against invading Israeli troops, as the region reckoned with the killing of top Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in a battle with Israeli forces in Gaza. Sinwar was a chief architect of the attack on southern Israel that precipitated the latest escalating conflicts in the Middle East.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to annihilate Hamas and recover dozens of hostages held by the group. Hamas says it will only release the captives in return for a lasting cease-fire, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the release of Palestinian prisoners.

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel's security fence and stormed in, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. Israel's offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not distinguish combatants from civilians. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people.

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Here's the latest:

Lebanon's caretaker PM calls for implementation of UN resolution to end fighting

BEIRUT — Lebanon's caretaker prime minister says implementing a nearly 2-decade-old U.N. resolution still offers the best path to ending the Israel-Hezbollah war.

In an interview with the Al-Arabiya network broadcast Monday, ahead of the arrival of a U.S. envoy, Najib Mikati said a new resolution appeared unlikely.

''There is no solution but a diplomatic solution, and the diplomatic solution is currently on the table,'' he said.

U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, called for Hezbollah to withdraw from the border and for U.N. peacekeepers and the Lebanese army to control southern Lebanon, without any Hezbollah or Israeli presence.

Israel says the resolution was never implemented and that Hezbollah built up extensive military infrastructure right up to the border. Lebanon has long accused Israel of violating its airspace and failing to abide by other provisions of the resolution.

Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel after its ally, the Palestinian Hamas militant group, attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The Lebanese militant group has long said it would continue the attacks until there is a cease-fire in Gaza.

Hezbollah appears to have softened that position in recent weeks as Israeli strikes have eliminated much of its top leadership and pounded large areas of Lebanon, displacing over a million people. Israeli ground forces invaded Lebanon earlier this month.

Hezbollah now says it supports the diplomatic efforts of Mikati and Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a political ally of the militant group. Both Lebanese leaders have said they are no longer seeking to tie a cease-fire in Lebanon to one in Gaza.

U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein, who has been trying to broker a cease-fire in Lebanon for the past year, is due back in the region this week.

Israeli military apologizes for strike that killed Lebanese soldiers

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military has apologized for a strike in southern Lebanon that killed three Lebanese soldiers.

The military said it struck a truck on Sunday that had entered an area where it had previously targeted a Hezbollah truck transporting a launcher and missiles.

The military said soldiers were not aware that the second truck belonged to the Lebanese army.

The military said it is ''not operating against the Lebanese Army and apologizes for these unwanted circumstances.''

Lebanon's army is a respected institution within the country, but it is not powerful enough to impose its will on Hezbollah or defend Lebanon from Israel's invasion. The army has largely kept to the sidelines as Israel and Hezbollah have traded blows over the past year.

Israeli forces invaded southern Lebanon at the beginning of the month and have been operating in a narrow strip along the border. Israeli airstrikes have pounded large areas of the country, targeting what Israel says are Hezbollah sites.

The militant group has fired thousands of rockets, missiles and drones into Israel since Oct. 8, 2023, the day after its ally Hamas launched a surprise attack into Israel, triggering the war in Gaza.