Israel Kills Lebanese Brigadier-General, Captain, Private in Southern Lebanon Vehicle Strike

Israel launched an investigation after confirming it attacked a vehicle carrying Lebanese soldiers in southern Lebanon, where the Lebanese Army said the strike killed a brigadier-general, a captain and a private.

The BBC reported the attack happened on a road close to the village of Kfar Tebnit, around four miles north of the Litani River and close to the city of Nabatieh, where there has been intense fighting and displacement in recent months.

Al Jazeera

Mehr News Agency said Lebanon’s army reported that a brigadier general, a captain and a soldier were killed in an Israeli strike on a military vehicle on the Khardali-Nabatieh road.

The Lebanese Army said the “aggressive and barbaric” strike was “aimed at thwarting all efforts to reach a solution,” while the IDF said its forces were operating against the Hezbollah terrorist organisation, not against the Lebanese Army.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the attack and said his office considered it a “flagrant violation of Lebanese sovereignty and of international laws and norms,” while Prime Minister Nawaf Salam called it “a heinous crime and an attack on Lebanon and all Lebanese people”.

The BBC reported that the Lebanese Army reacted furiously, accusing Israel of “brutal, deliberate and repeated aggression,” and shared images of the burnt-out wreckage of a car on a road outside the village.

Al Jazeera

Hezbollah dubbed the attack a “heinous crime” and accused the Lebanese government of exposing its own country to bloodshed through its “complete surrender to the enemy’s demands in Washington,” while Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Israel’s killing of the three Lebanese army personnel reaffirms that Israel “is laying claim to Lebanon in all its components”.

In Washington-linked diplomacy, NPR said the latest ceasefire announced in Washington came through U.S.-brokered talks between Israel and Lebanon’s government, and it reported that Hezbollah has refused the truce.

The BBC said the strike occurred in an “active and evacuated combat zone” where the IDF believes Hezbollah has operated from, and it noted that Israel has previously issued sweeping evacuation orders for the region as its forces continue to push north.

“High-ranking Lebanese army officers are among at least 12 people killed in Israeli attacks across southern Lebanon, days after the countries agreed to a conditional ceasefire during United States-mediated talks”

Al Jazeera

NPR reported that an airstrike on a vehicle on a road linking the city of Nabatiyeh with the town of Marjayoun killed nine people including three members of the Lebanese military, and it added that another airstrike on the southern village of Saksakiyah killed six people and wounded four.

France 24 said Lebanon’s president and prime minister criticised Iran for opposing the latest ceasefire deal between the Lebanese government and Israel, with Nawaf Salam telling Iran’s leaders: “Have mercy on our south, stop treating it and its people as merely a bargaining chip to improve the terms of your negotiations.”

The BBC also said at least 3,550 people have been killed in Lebanon since the start of the war, while NPR described the ceasefire framework as requiring Hezbollah to immediately stop firing, withdraw from the south, and eventually disarm—an arrangement Hezbollah has refused.