BEIRUT (Dispatches) -- The seventh round of U.S.-brokered negotiations between Lebanon and Israel concluded in Rome without any breakthrough, as Israeli forces unleashed their most intense artillery barrage on southern Lebanon since the signing of a disgracful framework agreement in June.
As diplomats met at the U.S. Embassy in Rome, Israeli artillery and warplanes pounded Lebanese villages with increasing ferocity. 
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon recorded 120 projectiles fired by Israeli forces between midnight and 4 p.m. on Thursday alone—surpassing the previous day’s total of 113 and marking the highest single-day figure since June 21.
Crucially, UNIFIL reported that it did not detect any projectile launches by Hezbollah during the period, underscoring the one-sided nature of the Israeli violence.
The framework agreement signed in Washington on June 26, which the Rome talks were ostensibly meant to implement, has been condemned by broad swathes of Lebanon’s political class as a national catastrophe that compromises Lebanese sovereignty while extracting no binding commitments from Israel.
Critics point to the agreement’s fundamental imbalance: Lebanon is required to deploy its army to “pilot zones,” dismantle resistance infrastructure, and verify disarmament—all before Israeli forces begin their gradual redeployment. No binding timetable exists for Israel’s withdrawal from occupied Lebanese territory.
Lebanon’s prominent Mufti Ahmad Qabalan declared the agreement the “worst national catastrophe” in Lebanon’s history. Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem described it as “a humiliation, a disgrace and a surrender of sovereignty.” Even the Free Patriotic Movement, one of the largest Christian parties, has warned against “surrendering to Israeli demands.”
The Rome negotiations, held over three days, failed to produce any tangible progress. 
While negotiators talked, Israeli forces intensified their assault. On Wednesday, Israeli forces fired 113 projectiles, with 77 striking the town of Al-Mansuri and surrounding areas. 
On Thursday, the bombardment increased to 120 projectiles in just 16 hours. The Israeli military issued urgent evacuation warnings to al-Mansuri residents, forcing families to flee their homes.
The Lebanese Ministry of Health reported that eight civilians were injured in Israeli airstrikes on the town of Burj al-Shamali near Tyre on Thursday. Israeli warplanes also flew at low altitude over Beirut’s southern suburbs, the Bekaa Valley, and the northern region of Akkar.
Since March 2, when Israel escalated its military aggressions in Lebanon, the attacks have killed 4,333 people, injured 12,250 others, and displaced more than 1 million Lebanese citizens, according to Lebanese Health Ministry figures.