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Drone claim, strikes hit
Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon on Sunday killed four people, the country’s health ministry said, after Israel said the attacks were a response to an alleged Hezbollah drone launch targeting troops in the Israeli-occupied “security zone” in the south.
“Israeli air strikes on southern Lebanon Sunday killed four people, two of them women”
The health ministry reported two people killed in Nabatieh al-Fawqa and two women killed in nearby Arab Salim, and said 20 other people, including several women and three children, were wounded in those locations as well as in the city of Nabatieh and the town of Kfar Rumman, adding that the toll was provisional.
Israel’s military said it struck south Lebanon after Hezbollah fighters launched two drones towards Israeli soldiers operating in Israel’s self-declared “security zone,” and it did not report any troop casualties.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said that after an Israeli evacuation warning for a building it identified as a Hezbollah “facility” in Arab Salim, “enemy warplanes launched a strike on another house, destroying it” and killing the two women.
The NNA also said the Israeli military subsequently “carried out a strike on the home” threatened in the evacuation warning, while it reported a strike in Nabatieh al-Fawqa destroyed part of the Ghandour hospital, which it said had been out of service for years.
Evacuation warnings and blame
Lebanon’s authorities and the Israeli military described the same sequence differently, with Israel issuing its first “evacuation” notice in Lebanon in several weeks for residents near a building it identified as a Hezbollah “facility” in Arab Salim, while it did not issue warnings for other areas where strikes were reported.
The NNA said that after the Israeli warning for the building, “enemy warplanes launched a strike on another house, destroying it” and killing the two women, and it said the Israeli military then struck the threatened home.
In parallel, the Daily Pioneer said the strikes killed at least four people and wounded 20 others in southern Lebanon “despite an ongoing truce,” and it attributed the targeting to Israel’s claim that Hezbollah launched two drones towards Israeli forces.
The Daily Pioneer also reported that two women were killed and six people injured in Arab Salim after Israeli forces issued a displacement order for a building in the town, and it said Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported two deaths in a separate strike on Nabatieh al-Fawqa.
Israel described Hezbollah’s drone launch as a “blatant violation,” while the Daily Pioneer framed the attacks as occurring “despite an ongoing truce,” and it said Israel continued to operate inside a self-declared security zone extending about 10 km into Lebanese territory.
Hill fight and negotiations
Beyond the Sunday strikes, the sources tied the violence to the contested Ali al-Taher ridge and the wider ceasefire framework, with PBS describing how fighting has continued on a strategic hill overlooking parts of a main southern city even after a ceasefire went into effect more than two months ago.
“had wanted Hezbollah to hand over the hill to the Lebanese army”
PBS said Ali Taher hill has been the scene of daily shelling and airstrikes by Israel’s military, and it reported that Hezbollah has repeatedly attacked Israeli forces in the area with drones.
The same PBS account said the United States, which is mediating talks between Lebanon and Israel, had wanted Hezbollah to hand over the hill to the Lebanese army, but Hezbollah refused, and it added that Israel’s military announced it had taken “operational control” of Ali Taher and a network of tunnels beneath it on Thursday night.
The Jerusalem Post described the immediate trigger for strikes as Hezbollah launching a drone towards IDF soldiers, and it said the IDF struck Hezbollah terrorists and infrastructure in Lebanon after the drone was shot down, adding that no IDF soldiers were injured.
The Jerusalem Post also said Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that any Iranian attack on the Ali al-Taher ridge complex would free the IDF “from any restrictions,” and it quoted Katz threatening: “We will destroy all national, military, and civilian infrastructure in Iran, including energy infrastructure,” while “We will return Iran to the Stone Age.”