Israeli airstrikes killed at least 11 people in southern Lebanon early Saturday, the deadliest escalation since the June ceasefire, drawing condemnation from Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.
Israeli airstrikes tore through southern Lebanon early Saturday, killing at least 11 people in the deadliest escalation since the June ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect. The strikes destroyed homes, hammered strategic ridgelines, and drew a sharp rebuke from Lebanon's prime minister, who insisted the dead were not combatants.
The deadliest single strike hit a family home on the outskirts of Ansar, a village in the Nabatieh district, just before midnight. Lebanon's Health Ministry said seven people were killed there, including three children and two women. Rescue teams spent hours digging through the rubble of the destroyed building, pulling the dead and wounded to hospitals in Nabatieh.
Hours later, Israeli warplanes hit the nearby town of Deir al-Zahrani, about 11 miles from Ansar, killing four more people and wounding at least nine. With those casualties, Saturday's toll rose to at least 11 dead and more than a dozen wounded, according to Lebanese officials, who called the numbers provisional.
The Israeli military said the raids targeted Hezbollah terror infrastructure in the areas of Nabatieh and Ansar, and that they came in response to Hezbollah action against Israeli soldiers near the Ali al-Taher ridge, a strategic hilltop about six miles from the border that has become a focal point of the conflict.
Lebanon's National News Agency reported a series of airstrikes on the ridge itself, along with Israeli shelling, and said a strike in the valley between Ansar and Zarariyeh marked the first attack at that geographical depth since the ceasefire two months ago. The agency also said Israeli warplanes hit the al-Mashaa neighborhood in al-Mansouri shortly before midnight.
Closer to the border, Israeli forces demolished homes in the town of Bint Jbeil and opened heavy machine-gun fire toward houses along the Kounine-Saf al-Hawa road, according to the agency. The strikes left a destroyed building and a swimming pool clouded with dust and debris in Ansar, where rescuers worked to remove human remains from the rubble.
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam rejected Israel's account in blunt terms. "The seven martyrs of the Israeli strike on Ansar are not military infrastructure, and the children and women who were killed are not military targets," he said in a statement on social media.
Salam called the escalation "extremely dangerous" and said it undermines efforts to consolidate stability in southern Lebanon. He stressed that only the Lebanese state, through its army, bears responsibility for dealing with any military infrastructure on its own territory, and accused Israel of intimidating residents in their homes.
Saturday's raids are the heaviest since the June 20 truce largely halted months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group. Even so, Lebanon has recorded more than 350 people killed and hundreds more wounded in intermittent strikes since the ceasefire was announced, along with the broad demolition of civilian buildings across southern villages and towns.
The wider conflict, which erupted in March, has killed more than 4,300 people in Lebanon, wounded more than 12,000, and driven close to a million people from their homes. Saturday's attacks show how quickly the fragile calm can shatter, even as each side blames the other for violating the terms of the June agreement.
Lebanese authorities are still counting casualties, and the toll from Saturday's strikes could climb further as rescuers continue searching the rubble. The immediate question is whether Hezbollah answers with rocket fire of its own, which would risk a wider conflagration just as international mediators work to keep the June deal from collapsing.
For now, the pattern is familiar: Israel says it is targeting militants, Lebanon counts civilians among the dead, and the truce that was supposed to end the war looks more fragile with every strike.
Israeli airstrikes killed at least 11 people in southern Lebanon early Saturday, the deadliest escalation since the June ceasefire, drawing condemnation from Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.
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