Israeli strikes destroy bridge that was last link between two southern Lebanese cities

Lebanon's National News Agency NNA reported Thursday that Israeli warplanes had carried out two consecutive airstrikes on the Qasimiyeh Bridge, the last remaining route connecting the coastal cities of Tyre and Sidon, south of capital Beirut.

The strikes destroyed the bridge completely, according to the NNA, which said a drone had earlier carried out two separate strikes in the area before the jets launched the main strikes.

More than a month of Israeli airstrikes have decimated infrastructure across a vast swath of southern Lebanon, killed more than 2,000 people in the country and forced more than 1 million to flee from their homes, according to Lebanese officials.

President Trump and Israeli officials say the Israeli and Lebanese leaders are to speak later Thursday, in what would be the first direct communication between the neighboring countries' top leaders in decades.

While the U.S. and Israel have insisted Israel's war against Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon is not part of the tenuous two-week ceasefire between Tehran and the Trump administration, Iran has consistently stressed that until the fighting stops in Lebanon, there can be no lasting end to the war launched by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28.