Mourners in the town of Yanouh in southern Lebanon buried Hassan Jaber, a police officer, and his son Ali after an Israeli drone strike killed them when it hit a car in the town’s center, the Associated Press reported. The funeral took place after relatives said the strike on Monday hit as the father and child were walking nearby, and after Lebanon’s health ministry said the boy was 3 years old.
The AP reported that Hassan Jaber, who was the father of three, and Ali were killed at the scene along with the car driver, Ahmad Salami. The Israeli military said in a statement that the strike targeted a Hezbollah member and that Salami was an artillery official with the Lebanese militant group.
Lebanese officials and residents described Yanouh as a crowded area with coffee shops, corner stores, a Shiite religious gathering hall, a municipal building and a civil defense center, according to the AP. The AP reported that a cousin of the boy’s father, also named Hassan Jaber, said people were close by when the car was hit.
Relatives said Hassan Jaber and Ali were standing about 5 meters (5.5 yards) from the car when it was struck, the AP reported. The cousin said the father and his son were going to buy manakish, a Lebanese breakfast flatbread, and he added that the strike appeared to target a car but instead struck it in the middle of that crowded place.
The Israeli military said it was aware of a claim that uninvolved civilians were killed and that the case was under review, adding that it “makes every effort to reduce the likelihood of harm” to civilians, according to the AP. Salami was also buried in Yanouh on Tuesday, alongside Hassan Jaber and Ali.
At the funeral, the AP reported that attendees carried photos of Ali, describing him as a child with large green eyes and blond hair, and some also carried flags of Hezbollah or Amal, a Shiite party allied with Hezbollah but sometimes a rival. The AP also reported that the mother of one of the boy’s uncles asked what Ali had done wrong, and whether he was a fighter or a “jihadi,” while another relative described Ali as showing signs of “unusual intelligence.”
The strike came as Israel has stepped up its campaign against Hezbollah and its allies in Lebanon, the AP said. It cited fighting that began after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel, when Hezbollah started firing rockets from Lebanon in support of Hamas and Palestinians, prompting Israel to respond with airstrikes and shelling. The AP said the low-level conflict escalated into full-scale war in September 2024 and was later reined in—though not fully stopped—by a U.S.-brokered ceasefire two months later.
The AP reported that since then, Israel has accused Hezbollah of trying to rebuild and has carried out near-daily strikes in Lebanon that it says target Hezbollah militants and facilities. It also said Israel continues to occupy five hilltop points on the Lebanese side of the border, and that Hezbollah has claimed one strike against Israel since the ceasefire.