Israel strikes in southern Lebanon kill 10 as Hezbollah fires drones

Summary in Prose

Israel carried out several airstrikes on southern Lebanon on Friday, killing at least 10 people, as Hezbollah said it fired rockets and drones toward northern Israel where two soldiers were wounded, according to the Associated Press.

The exchanges continued despite a ceasefire in place since April 17, with both sides reporting further attacks during the day. Hezbollah also issued a series of statements saying it launched drones and rockets at Israeli military positions as the fighting went on.

In southern Lebanon, Israel’s military on Friday afternoon urged residents of the village of Habboush near Nabatiyeh to evacuate. The Israeli military warned that people close to Hezbollah’s facilities would be in danger, and an airstrike on Habboush around the time of the warning killed six people, including a woman and a child, and wounded eight, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.

The Associated Press reported that Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said four other people were killed in strikes on three additional southern villages. By Friday afternoon, Hezbollah had issued six statements describing drone and rocket launches targeting Israeli military posts.

Hezbollah’s actions were also reflected on the Israeli side. The Israeli military confirmed that an explosive Hezbollah drone fell in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon. Israeli media reported a drone strike near Margaliot that caused a fire, and said two Israeli soldiers were lightly wounded in a separate Hezbollah drone impact in the area.

The day’s exchanges followed earlier strikes in Lebanon. Paramedics in southern Lebanon recovered the bodies of five people, including a man and his three sons, from under rubble in the village of Kfar Rumman, near Nabatiyeh, after they were killed the previous day. The National News Agency said the five were killed in an airstrike late Thursday on Kfar Rumman and identified them as Malek Hamza and his sons, Ali, Fadel and Hamza, and said the strike also killed a Lebanese soldier; Lebanon’s army confirmed that soldier, Ali Jaber, was killed.

Medical operations in Tyre as some residents return

Despite the war, some residents said they have continued returning to homes in southern Lebanon after being displaced for weeks. In Tyre, one of the few hospitals still functioning, director Wael Mroueh said many of the wounded the facility treats are people who fled at first but later came back to areas facing periodic bombardment.

Mroueh described the situation as different from earlier rounds of fighting, saying many left villages surrounding Tyre in the early days, but that “a large number did not find places and came back.” He said hospital staff who are also displaced are being hosted there with their families to keep operations running, and that the facility has enough food and supplies for a month while relying on international organizations to maintain its supply chain.

Another resident interviewed by the Associated Press in Tyre, Umm Ali Khodor, said her apartment had been damaged during the 2024 war and again during the current conflict, and that after being displaced, she and her family rented elsewhere but returned because the circumstances were too difficult to sustain.

Red Cross condemned targeting; death toll cited

Also on Friday, a senior official with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies condemned the targeting of Red Cross volunteers during the Israel-Hezbollah war. Xavier Castellanos Mosquera, the IFRC Under Secretary General for National Society Development and Coordination, said two Lebanese Red Cross volunteers had been killed and 18 others wounded by Israeli strikes while he was visiting Lebanon.

Mosquera told the Associated Press that Red Cross volunteers in southern Lebanon described hugging each other before departing on a call because they did not know if they would return. He also said he had seen video showing “ambulances that were hit by bullets” while trying to rescue journalist Amal Khalil, who was buried in rubble when an Israeli strike hit a building where she was sheltering in southern Lebanon last month, according to the Associated Press.

Mosquera added that he recently visited Iran, where he said key Iranian Red Crescent Society facilities had been targeted. He said two chemical plants that provided raw materials to produce plastic syringes and dialysis components were struck and destroyed, and that another strike hit close to a Red Crescent rehabilitation center in Tehran serving children, elderly people and people with disabilities.

Israel has denied that it deliberately targets health facilities and emergency workers.

The Associated Press said the war between Israel and Hezbollah began March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel two days after the United States and Israel launched a war on Iran. It said Israel has since carried out hundreds of airstrikes and launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon, capturing dozens of towns and villages along the border. The AP also said Lebanon and Israel held their first direct talks in more than three decades, and that the two countries have been in a state of war since the founding of Israel in 1948.

The Associated Press reported that the ceasefire declared in Washington went into effect April 17 and was later extended by three weeks. It said Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported Friday that the war’s death toll reached 2,618 while 8,094 people were wounded.