An Israeli soldier was killed Thursday night by Hezbollah mortar fire in southern Lebanon, the military announced Friday morning, as both sides continued to exchange blows despite talks in Washington on Thursday aimed at ending the conflict.

The slain soldier was named as Staff Sgt. Negev Dagan, 20, of the Golani Brigade’s 12th Battalion, from the southern agricultural community of Dekel.

Dagan was hit by a mortar shell fired by Hezbollah troops in southern Lebanon at around 10 p.m. on Thursday. His death was declared at the scene.

He is the 19th Israeli soldier killed since Hezbollah dragged Lebanon into the wider regional war on March 2, and the sixth since US President Donald Trump announced a truce in Lebanon on April 16. A Defense Ministry civilian contractor has also been killed in southern Lebanon in the renewed conflict with Hezbollah.

Two civilians have been killed in Hezbollah attacks on northern Israel, and an Israeli civilian was mistakenly killed in the north by Israeli artillery shelling.

The IDF and Hezbollah continued exchanging blows Thursday evening into Friday, with Israel issuing new evacuation orders in southern Lebanon on Friday morning ahead of fresh strikes, after the Iran-backed terror group fired a rocket at northern Israel.

The military said it was also installing sheets of mesh nets to guard against the threat of Hezbollah’s explosive drones, which on Thursday wounded four civilians, one of them critically, in northern Israel’s Rosh Hanikra area.

The unabated fighting on Israel’s northern border took place against the backdrop of the third round of talks between Israeli and Lebanese envoys in Washington on Thursday.

The talks aimed at ending the conflict lasted from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. local time, with a break in the middle. A US State Department official said it was a “full day of productive and positive talks” and that discussions would continue on Friday.

Lebanon, whose government has committed to disarming Hezbollah, is demanding a halt to Israel’s strikes and full Israeli withdrawal, while Israel, which accuses Beirut of failing to disarm Hezbollah, demands that the terror group give up its weapons. Hezbollah itself has rejected the direct talks and insisted its weapons are not up for discussion.

The Washington meetings mark the highest-level direct contact in decades between Lebanon and Israel, which have technically been at war since Israel was founded in 1948.

Both Lebanon and Israel are broadening their delegations for this round, after the sides were represented by their ambassadors to Washington, Israel’s........

© The Times of Israel