Israeli airstrikes kill at least 12 in southern Lebanon

Israeli airstrikes hit a village in southern Lebanon early Monday, killing at least 12 people and wounding others, including children, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. The strikes came despite a truce reached more than two months ago between Israel and Hezbollah, and after Israel’s military said it was responding to drone attacks targeting Israeli troops in Lebanon.

According to WTOP’s report, one strike hit a building and killed 11 people, including two children and four women, while eight others were wounded, among them three children and a paramedic. A second strike targeted a car and killed a paramedic affiliated with the Lebanese Islamic Risala Scout Association, with two more people wounded. Israel’s military said the strikes targeted a Hezbollah militant allegedly transporting weapons to Kfar Rumman, and framed the operation as retaliation for two Hezbollah drone attacks.

The episode illustrates how ceasefire language can coexist with routine combat operations when enforcement is left to the same parties doing the fighting. Lebanon and Israel signed a U.S.-mediated framework deal in June for Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon in exchange for Hezbollah’s disarmament, but WTOP notes there has been little progress implementing it. Hezbollah is not a party to the Lebanon–Israel talks and has said it will not disarm north of the Litani River; Israeli officials have said they will not withdraw unless Hezbollah is disarmed throughout Lebanon. The result is a negotiation track that can produce documents without producing compliance.

On the ground, the geography is being treated as a tactical problem. Israel said it was in “operational control” of the Ali Taher hill overlooking villages and roads leading to Nabatiyeh, a detail that matters more for day-to-day security than communiqués in distant capitals. In villages such as Kfar Rumman, residents quoted by WTOP describe constant anxiety as strikes and warnings arrive in quick succession, and local leaders argue that deals signed by national officials are being paid for by people living under the flight paths.

WTOP reports that Israel’s military issued an evacuation warning for a home in Deir al-Zahrani earlier Monday and a building was struck shortly afterwards, with no casualty information provided. A day earlier, Israeli strikes killed at least seven people in southern Lebanon and destroyed an empty hospital.

By Monday morning, the village building that was hit had become a pile of rubble, and the truce remained in force on paper.