The Israeli military launched intense airstrikes across southern Lebanon early on Thursday, targeting multiple areas including the country’s fourth-largest city, as tensions with Hezbollah escalated sharply ahead of key security talks scheduled in Washington.
According to Lebanese authorities, at least 14 people were killed in the latest wave of attacks, including women, children and a Lebanese soldier. Several others sustained injuries, the Lebanese Health Ministry and the state-run National News Agency (NNA) said. At the same time, the Israeli military announced that one Israeli soldier was killed and two reservists were wounded in a Hezbollah drone strike in northern Israel.
The renewed escalation follows Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement that military operations against Hezbollah would be expanded. The move reportedly came after Hezbollah intensified its use of fibre-optic explosive drones, which have targeted Israeli troops operating inside Lebanon and struck areas near Israel’s northern border communities.
The strikes occurred just ahead of planned security discussions between Lebanese and Israeli military officials in Washington on Friday. The talks are expected to focus on extending and stabilising a fragile ceasefire arrangement that officially came into effect on April 17, although hostilities have continued to intensify in southern Lebanon despite the agreement. Beirut has largely been spared from the recent attacks.
Hezbollah has rejected the significance of the planned talks and instead aligned itself with Iran, its principal regional ally. Tehran has reportedly linked any progress in its own negotiations with Washington, being mediated by Pakistan, to an end to the conflict in Lebanon.
Before carrying out Thursday’s strikes, Israeli military Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued evacuation warnings for eight buildings and surrounding areas in the coastal city of Tyre along the Mediterranean coast. Following the warnings, many residents fled the area fearing imminent attacks.
Further north, in the coastal city of Sidon, an Israeli drone strike hit an apartment building housing displaced families, killing five people and injuring 21 others, including five children. Among those killed was Hossan Zeidan, a former correspondent for Iran’s Arabic-language television network al-Aalam. Residents described scenes of panic and destruction following the strike.
“I was in my room when the blast shook the building and shattered glass and debris fell around me,” said Mohammad Al-Gharbi, who lived opposite the targeted building. “The families staying there had already fled attacks in southern Lebanon and came here seeking safety, only to be hit again.”
In another incident in the coastal town of Adloun, an Israeli drone struck a vehicle carrying a family attempting to flee the violence. Six people were killed in the attack, including two children and their parents, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
Also read: Fire at girl's school dormitory in Kenya, 16 killed
A separate drone strike near Tyre killed two people riding a motorcycle, although authorities said it was not immediately clear who had been targeted.
Near the southern city of Nabatiyeh, the Lebanese army confirmed that one of its soldiers was killed in an Israeli drone attack while travelling on a motorcycle.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for multiple drone and rocket attacks targeting Israeli military positions in southern Lebanon and northern Israel. The group said it had launched strikes against Israeli troops and tanks that had crossed the Litani River into the town of Zawtar al-Sharqieh near Nabatiyeh, where close-range clashes were continuing.
The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has displaced more than one million people across Lebanon. The fighting began after Hezbollah launched rockets into northern Israel on March 2, saying the attacks were carried out in solidarity with Iran following the outbreak of the Iran conflict two days earlier.
According to Lebanon’s Health Ministry, at least 3,269 people have been killed and more than 9,800 wounded in Israeli attacks since the conflict began.
Israeli authorities, citing figures released by Netanyahu’s office, said at least 23 Israeli soldiers and one defence contractor have been killed in or near southern Lebanon during the fighting, while two civilians in northern Israel have also died, most of them in drone-related attacks.
Follow us
