Israeli strikes kill nine in south Lebanon in deadliest toll since June ceasefire
Two Israeli airstrikes on south Lebanon on Saturday killed nine people, including three children, and wounded 11, marking the worst casualty toll since a June truce with Hezbollah.
Israeli warplanes struck a home on the edge of the village of Ansar in south Lebanon early Saturday, killing seven people and levelling the building. Rescue teams worked at the scene searching for survivors and recovering bodies. Hours later, a separate Israeli strike hit a house in the town of Deir al-Zahrani, killing two people and wounding nine, leaving the streets covered in rubble and smoke. An Israeli drone also struck a motorcycle in the nearby city of Nabatieh, though it remains unclear whether the rider was killed.
The escalation came despite a June ceasefire that had largely halted fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. Neither village lies within Israel's self-declared "security zone," a 231-square-mile stretch of south Lebanon under Israeli occupation. In the aftermath, roads out of Nabatieh and surrounding villages became jammed with traffic as residents fled north seeking safety.
An Israeli military spokesperson said the strikes targeted "Hezbollah infrastructure" in the Ansar and Nabatieh area, describing them as a response to Hezbollah fighters attacking Israeli soldiers near Ali Taher, a hill where Israel says Hezbollah maintains underground command centres it has been shelling for months.
Lebanon's prime minister, Nawaf Salam, condemned the strikes as "extremely dangerous," saying they undermined efforts to stabilise the south. He rejected the Israeli characterisation of the Ansar victims, stating that the seven people killed there, including children and women, were not military targets.
Wider context
The current round of hostilities traces back to a Hezbollah rocket attack on Israel on 2 March, launched in retaliation for the killing of Iran's late supreme leader. Israel's subsequent air campaign and ground incursion killed more than 4,300 people and left roughly 6% of Lebanese territory under occupation. Violence has eased considerably since a US-Iran memorandum of understanding in June and a subsequent US-brokered framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel, though intermittent strikes and demolitions of civilian buildings in southern towns continue to be reported.
Separately, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem this week accused Lebanese authorities of pressuring the country's army over implementation of the framework deal, while Human Rights Watch urged the UN to maintain an international peacekeeping presence in Lebanon after the current mandate expires this year.
