Israeli forces blow up homes, launch air strikes in southern Lebanon

Israeli forces continue to dismantle necessities of life in Bint Jbeil and several neighboring villages in southern Lebanon, the country’s National News Agency reports.

At dawn, troops blew up a number of homes in the city and fired heavy machineguns towards residential areas along the Kounine-Saff al-Hawa road, NNA said.

Shortly before midnight, Israeli warplanes also launched an air strike on the al-Mashaa neighborhood in the town of al-Mansouri in Tyre district, it added.

Six killed in Israeli air attacks on southern Lebanon

Six people are dead following an Israeli air attack on the town of Ansar in southern Lebanon, according to the country’s civil defence.

At dawn, three Israeli air attacks hit the outskirts of Ansar in the Nabatieh district, as well as the vicinity of Nabatieh al-Fawqa.

Civil defence officials said the death toll was preliminary as rescue operations continued.

Death toll from Israeli attack on southern Lebanon rises to seven

The death toll from an Israeli air attack on the southern Lebanese town of Ansar has risen to seven, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency.

Earlier we reported that three Israeli air attacks hit the outskirts of Ansar in the Nabatieh district, as well as the vicinity of Nabatieh al-Fawqa.

NNA reported that three others were wounded when Israeli warplanes struck a house on the outskirts of Ansar towards Zrarieh at dawn, destroying the building.

Rescue teams are continuing to search through the rubble and transport the dead and wounded to hospitals in Nabatieh.

Israel confirms its forces carried out attacks on southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh, Ansar areas

Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that seven people were killed and three wounded when Israeli warplanes struck a house on the outskirts of Ansar village towards Zrarieh village at dawn, destroying the building.

The Israeli military now claimed its overnight attacks on the Nabatieh and Ansar areas of southern Lebanon were carried out in response to what it described as an action by Hezbollah against Israeli soldiers at the Ali al-Taher Ridge.

The military provided no further details about the alleged Hezbollah action.

It came as the Israeli attacks took place despite a ceasefire that is meant to halt hostilities. Under the agreement, Israel is required to cease offensive military operations in Lebanon.

Tens of thousands of Lebanese remain displaced as Israeli forces continue to occupy parts of southern Lebanon behind what Israel has designated its “Yellow Line”.

Israel escalating attacks on southern Lebanon ‘day by day’

At least seven people, including children, were killed in an Israeli attack on Ansar, close to Nabatieh.

The Israeli attack came, surprisingly, after midnight, killing members of a family and, at the same time, adding more complications and creating more fear for other people who live in this area.

This is an area seen by people as safe, but an air attack has now hit. There’s now this escalation, along with apparently more Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon. We are seeing many demolitions; they are erasing towns and villages in the south.

There are villages, especially those on the border with Israel, that have been completely erased, including graveyards and historic monuments.

This is escalating day by day, in parallel with what seems to be an impotent diplomatic path, which, until this moment, does not seem to amount to any results on the ground.

At least two killed in new Israeli attack on southern Lebanon

Israel has attacked the southern Lebanese village of Deir ez-Zahrani, killing at least two people and injuring nine.

Children killed by Israel in Ansar ‘are not military infrastructure’: Lebanese PM Salam

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has condemned continued Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon and called them a matter of “utmost gravity”.

Salam said escalations in the city of Nabatieh and villages including Ansar and Deir ez-Zahrani have been accompanied by intensive air strikes and shelling as well as “intimidation of residents in their homes”.

“The seven martyrs of the Israeli air strike on the village of Ansar are not ‘military infrastructure’, nor are the children and women killed in it military targets,” he said.

Israel, he said, must “halt” its escalation in the area.

Lebanon’s Aoun says Israeli attacks ‘clear message to the negotiation track’

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has critiscised Israel’s continuing attacks on southern Lebanon, particularly in Nabatieh and the surrounding areas, saying they repeatedly violate the agreement with the US and Israel.

Aoun said the attacks constituted “a clear message to the negotiation track” and to US efforts to implement the agreement.

Aoun also accused Israel of repeatedly violating international laws protecting civilians.

Death toll rises from Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon

The death toll from an Israeli attack on the town of Deir ez-Zahrani, in southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh district, has risen to four, according to the Lebanese Civil Defense.

Earlier, officials reported that two people died in Saturday’s attack and five others were injured.

One more body was recovered in the rubble from the attacks, the Lebanese Civil Defense said, while a separate search party discovered another casualty.

Lebanon parliament speaker calls Israeli attacks ‘massacre’

Nabih Berri has called Israel’s deadly attacks on Ansar and Deir ez-Zahrani “a massacre”.

Berri said in a statement that the attacks represented the continuation of the “war aimed at extermination” in southern Lebanon.

Israel does not regard ceasefire agreements or follow laws, nor does it regard diplomatic efforts to end the war in Lebanon and the wider region, he added.

Hezbollah accuses Israel of ‘aggressive escalation’ in southern Lebanon

The armed group has condemned Israel’s latest attacks across southern Lebanon, accusing it of carrying out an “act of aggressive escalation” and targeting civilians.

A Hezbollah statement said Israel targeted a house on the outskirts of Ansar village and a building in Deir al-Zahrani village, adding that it is expanding the areas being attacked.

Hezbollah alleged that the escalation reflected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s desire “to escalate the war in order to bolster his domestic political standing, serve his electoral goals and appease the far-right”.

The group also criticised Lebanese authorities, calling on them to seek ways to halt Israeli attacks rather than pursuing direct negotiations.

Death toll in Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon increases to 11

The number of people killed in the Israeli attacks on two locations in southern Lebanon has risen to 11, with 19 wounded, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health.

Early morning attacks struck Deir ez-Zahrani in Nabatieh district, where four were killed and 17 wounded, including children and women, the statement said.

Israel accuses Hezbollah of ‘deliberately’ placing civilians in military compound

The office of the Israeli prime minister has accused Hezbollah of “deliberately” placing civilians in harm’s way, after its forces attacked Lebanon’s Nabatieh and Ansar areas, killing 11 people.

In a statement on X, it said Hezbollah attacked Israeli troops and seriously injured three soldiers. In response, the military struck what it described as the group’s headquarters.

“Only later did the [Israeli military] learn that Hezbollah deliberately put civilians in that military compound,” the ministry said.

“Hezbollah is willing to do anything, including using its own civilians as human shields, to falsely accuse Israel of deliberately targeting civilians, which the [military] clearly did not.”

The Israeli army has used the same argument in Gaza to cast civilian targets as legitimate while issuing evacuation orders to the entire northern part of the Strip, as well as protected facilities including al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest medical facility.

Israeli military claims killing Hezbollah commander in Ansar strike

Israeli military has said it killed a commander of Hezbollah’s Radwan Force in an air attack on the southern Lebanese village of Ansar that killed seven people.

In a statement, the army identified the operative as Ali Samir Al-Haj Hassan, a battalion commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force unit.

It added that Hassan’s family was also in the compound that was targeted in the strike and claimed they had been used as a “human shield.”

The operative was killed along with other “terrorists,” the statement said, while the family was injured.

Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon: Attack among the worst since truce was agreed in June

The Al-Haj Hassan family was displaced from their destroyed home in southern Lebanon and sought shelter in in Ansar believing it would be safer.

But an Israeli air strike killed them there. The attack highlights the dilemma facing Lebanon as a ceasefire agreement remains in place on paper, but is not holding for people being killed on the ground.

Residents in southern Lebanon flee after Israeli strikes kill 11

Residents of southern Lebanon are fleeing their homes again, after Israeli strikes on the outskirts of the Ansar village and on a building in Deir al-Zahrani village killed at least 11 people.

Video posted on social media show traffic congestion as people flee by car.

Iran condemns Israeli attacks in Lebanon, calls out UN silence on international law violations.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baghaei, strongly condemned Israel’s recent attacks on southern Lebanon, which killed 11 people, including children, in the worst attack since Israel and Lebanon signed a framework agreement to stop fighting in June.

The Israeli attacks destroyed homes in Ansar, the Ali al-Tahir heights, Nabatiyeh al-Fouqa and Deir al-Zahran.

In comments carried by Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency, Baghaei said Iran “regrets” the international community’s “continued silence and inaction of the United Nations Security Council in the face of blatant violations of international law and international human rights law.”

He added that Iran stands in solidarity with Lebanon, “in its efforts to defend the country’s national sovereignty, independence, and dignity.”

Israel confirms soldiers wounded in southern Lebanon

The Israeli military says three soldiers, including one officer, were wounded by an explosive drone in southern Lebanon overnight.

In a post on X, the army said the soldiers were taken out of Lebanon to receive medical treatment in hospital, and their families have been notified.

Israel has killed at least 11 in strikes on Lebanon today despite a ceasefire in effect.

Lebanese state media reports Israeli strike

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reports a “violent” bombing operation carried out by Israel on the town of Tallousa, in the Marjayoun district.

Expert criticizes Lebanon’s weak negotiation strategy with Israel

Randa Slim is the Middle East Program Director at the Stimson Center in Washington who specializes in conflict resolution in the region, including Lebanon. She says the country has backed itself into a corner by agreeing to a badly negotiated deal with Israel.

“I don’t think they have much choice right now. They have locked themselves into these negotiations and the cost of walking away from these negotiations is going to be much higher for the Lebanese than it is going to be for the Israelis, and that is exactly the position Israel wants them in”, Slim said.

She said excluding Hezbollah from the negotiations was a mistake. “Hezbollah was not consulted and neither was the speaker of parliament [Nabih Berri], who has lately been speaking on behalf of Hezbollah”.

“Right now, the Lebanese people are stuck between Israel; they are not going to withdraw and [saying] ‘I’m not going to ceasefire until Hezbollah is disarmed’. And Hezbollah is saying, ‘I’m not going to disarm until I can see withdrawal from the Israelis’,” Slim added.

We have been commenting on a regular basis by referring to the way Lebanon let itself forced into the conditional agreement in 2006 that was framed as a "ceasefire agreement" but dictated by the Israelis.

More Israeli attacks reported in southern Lebanon 

Explosions have been reported in Lebanon’s southern towns of Bint Jbeil and Taybeh, according to the National News Agency, hours after attacks killed at least 11 people.

Drones also targeted the outskirts of the town of al-Mansouri. Artillery shelling was reported in the towns of Sarbin, Barashit, al-Mansouri and Wadi Zibqin.

Israel bombs Lebanon’s Tyre district: Lebanese state media

Lebanon’s National News Agency reports that the Israeli army carried out an attack on the outskirts of Wadi Zibqin in the Tyre district.

NNA says artillery fire was used in the attack.

There is no information about casualties or damage that resulted from this attack at this time.

Israel continues bombing southern Lebanon

Israeli army has carried out an air strike on the Ali al-Taher ridge, near the UNESCO-listed Beaufort Castle.

The area has seen increased Israeli army activity in recent days and weeks. Israel claims the area has strategic significance and that it is dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure in its bombing.