Israeli strikes killed nine people in southern Lebanon on Saturday, Lebanese authorities said, marking one of the deadliest escalations since June agreements sharply reduced fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Al Jazeera reported that Lebanese authorities said at least nine people were killed and 12 wounded as Israel intensified attacks across several southern towns and villages. Lebanon’s National News Agency said seven people were killed when a strike hit a house on the outskirts of Ansar in the Nabatieh district.
The Guardian reported that three children were among the dead and that 11 people were injured in two Israeli airstrikes. It said the second strike hit a home in Deir al-Zahrani, killing two people and wounding nine, while roads leading out of Nabatieh and nearby villages filled with people leaving the area.
Israel said it had targeted Hezbollah infrastructure in the Ansar and Nabatieh areas. According to Al Jazeera, the Israeli military said the strikes came after an action against Israeli soldiers at the Ali al-Taher Ridge, a strategic area near Nabatieh.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam rejected Israel’s description of the Ansar casualties. Al-Monitor, carrying AFP reporting, quoted Salam as saying the seven people killed in Ansar were not military infrastructure and that the women and children killed were not military targets.
The escalation matters beyond Lebanon because Hezbollah’s role is tied directly to the wider Iran crisis. Al-Monitor noted that Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war in March with rocket fire at Israel in support of Iran, after which Israel launched a heavy air campaign and ground invasion that Lebanese authorities say killed more than 4,300 people.
Violence had declined after a U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding in June and a later U.S.-sponsored framework deal between Lebanon and Israel. That framework calls for Hezbollah’s disarmament, a gradual Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon and deployment of the Lebanese army in the south.
But the latest strikes show how fragile that arrangement remains. The Guardian reported that neither Ansar nor Deir al-Zahrani was inside Israel’s self-declared security zone, while Al Jazeera said Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called the attacks repeated violations of the framework agreement and international laws protecting civilians.
The immediate risk is that Lebanon becomes a more active pressure point in the broader Iran conflict just as the Strait of Hormuz standoff and U.S.-Iran diplomacy remain stalled. For now, the new deaths do not necessarily mean a full return to the March-level war, but they do show the June lull is fraying fast.
Sources: Al Jazeera; The Guardian; Al-Monitor/AFP; The Hindu.