At least four people were killed and about 20 others injured, including women and children, early Sunday, in a series of Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling across southern Lebanon, primarily targeting the Nabatieh district.
The strikes pose another test to the security arrangements between the two countries brokered by the US in June, with Israeli forces continuing to carry out operations in South Lebanon.
The Israeli occupation army announced a wide-scale offensive in response to what it termed a “flagrant violation” of the ceasefire agreement, claiming that Hezbollah launched two explosive-laden drones toward its forces in its “security zone” in southern Lebanon.
The Public Health Emergency Operations Center of the Lebanese Ministry of Health reported that two citizens were killed in Nabatieh Al-Fawqa and two women in Arab Salim, where six others were injured, including two young girls. An additional eight civilians were wounded in Nabatieh’s Al-Rahbat neighborhood, alongside four women in Kfar Rumman.
The Ministry of Health also reported the injury of eight citizens, including a woman and a girl, in the Al-Rahbat neighborhood of Nabatieh city, in addition to the wounding of four women in the town of Kfar Rumman.
The official Lebanese National News Agency reported that Israeli warplanes and drones targeted homes, including the house of the former mukhtar, the elected administrative official, of Kfar Rumman, an archaeological building at the entrance of the Al-Rahbat neighborhood in Nabatieh, a part of the out-of-service Ghandour Hospital, Al-Sayyeda Al-Masouma park, and a motorcycle at the Abu Ali Houmani junction. Concurrent artillery shelling hit the edges of Talat Al-Dabsha and Douhet Kfar Rumman.
The shelling also struck public facilities in Nabatieh, severely damaging the Regional Financial Department building, the press office of the Lebanese Ministry of Finance announced. Lebanese finance minister Yassine Jaber ordered urgent measures to safeguard official records and maintain government services. The local agriculture office and surrounding commercial shops also sustained damage.
At the onset of the attack, the Israeli occupation army posted that it had intercepted both drones without sustaining casualties, vowing to “remove any threat” and “operate forcefully” against the repeated attempts to harm its forces.
Eighteen minutes later, the Israeli army issued an urgent warning in Arabic ordering residents of Arab Salim to evacuate a residential villa marked in red and surrounding buildings within a 300-meter radius, citing its proximity to a Hezbollah facility.
Israeli warplanes subsequently flattened the building and launched additional strikes that caused further casualties in the town.
Lebanon and Israel reached US-brokered security arrangements on June 26 to calm border hostilities, though Israel maintained it would retain a security zone in southern Lebanon to counter Hezbollah.
Despite the ceasefire, Israeli forces have continued ground operations, with the 91st Division remaining active in the region.
In a statement on Sept. 1, the military claimed to have destroyed launch platforms, anti-tank guided missiles, and combat equipment found within civilian infrastructure, while noting its continued deployment to “remove threats,” and claiming commitment to the ceasefire agreement.
