Israel’s lethal ‘quadruple tap’ attack threatens peace plan for Lebanon

The leaders of Israel and Lebanon could meet in the White House this week for the first face-to-face talks between the two nations in 33 years.

- Oliver Marsden

A man carries a bloodstained jacket at the funeral of an emergency worker reportedly killed in an Israeli airstrike.

But while US president Donald Trump is confident a deal can be struck to turn last Thursday's temporary ceasefire into a more durable peace, the mood is less upbeat in Lebanon.

A UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon came under attack with small arms fire yesterday morning, leaving one French peacekeeper dead and three others wounded, two of them seriously, France’s president Emmanuel Macon and the force known as Unfil said.

Both Macron and Unfil blamed Hezbollah, but the Lebanese militant group denied involvement.

On Wednesday, Israel carried out a single attack that left the country reeling. After a strike in the southern town of Mayfadoun killed one person and left others wounded, two ambulances sped towards the site. As the paramedics helped the victims, a second Israeli airstrike slammed into them, killing one paramedic and fatally wounding another who died in hospital. Their colleagues screamed into their radios for help.