Death toll from Israeli strikes on Lebanon passes 3,000, officials say

Lebanon's health ministry says the number of people killed in the country by Israeli strikes during the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which escalated at the beginning of March, has surpassed 3,000.

It put the death toll at 3,020 on Monday, a grim milestone in the fighting that shows no sign of abating despite a fragile ceasefire.

Lebanon was drawn into the war on 2 March, when the Iran-backed armed Shia Islamist group Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel after an Israeli strike killed Iran's supreme leader.

The toll has continued to climb even after Lebanon and Israel agreed on Friday to extend their truce by 45 days, with the two sides set to resume negotiations at the beginning of June.

The health ministry says more than 400 of the deaths have occurred since the ceasefire came into effect on 17 April - a period marked by repeated violations on both sides.

The truce deal, brokered by the United States, allows Israel to carry out strikes it says are aimed at countering Hezbollah's military activity.

Lebanon has condemned the attacks, saying they undermine its efforts to re-establish the state's exclusive control over armed groups' weapons.

Since the ceasefire extension was announced on Friday, Israeli strikes on towns and villages across southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley have continued, killing dozens of people.

On Saturday, there was a sweeping series of strikes across more than two dozen villages, only nine of which were preceded by evacuation warnings.

Later that day, Hezbollah said its fighters had targeted the Yaara barracks in northern Israel "with a swarm of attack drones". This followed claims by Hezbollah of several operations against Israeli troops in southern Lebanon.

Israel's military said on Saturday that a soldier had been killed during fighting there, bringing its losses since early March to 20. Four civilians have also been killed.

Israeli ground forces continue to occupy a strip of territory stretching roughly 10km (six miles) from the Lebanese frontier that they seized during the conflict.