Israeli airstrikes hit southern Lebanon again on Saturday, killing at least seven people and wounding others as Israel’s military expanded or enforced evacuation warnings for communities near the border, according to officials described in reporting from Beirut. The Israeli military and Hezbollah continued to trade attacks despite a ceasefire in place since April 17, as the war entered its second month after erupting on March 2.
In the border village of Yaroun, Israeli forces used bulldozers to destroy parts of a Catholic convent that officials said had been empty because of earlier fighting. Gladys Sabbagh, the superior general of the Basilian Salvatorian Sisters, told The Associated Press that what they heard was that the convent had been destroyed by bulldozers. She said the compound had included a school closed since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war and that a clinic had been moved to the nearby village of Rmeich; Sabbagh described the convent as a small compound housing two nuns who had left because of the war.
Israel’s military disputed the convent’s description in its own account, saying it damaged a house in the area while destroying Hezbollah infrastructure in Yaroun. The military said that as soon as it learned the structure was linked to a church, soldiers “prevented any further damage from being done.” It also said Hezbollah had used the compound in the past to fire rockets toward Israel on several occasions and that the military does not strike religious institutions intentionally.
The Catholic Church in Lebanon rejected Israel’s depiction of the compound’s military use. Rev. Abdo Abou Kassm, director of the Catholic Center for Information, said the Catholic Church is against practices against places of worship and churches, describing them as places “to spread peace, love and education,” and adding that “These are not military bases.” The convent demolition came days after images circulated of an Israeli soldier using an ax on a statue of Jesus on the cross in the southern Lebanese village of Debel, which sparked condemnation in Lebanon and internationally.
Elsewhere in southern Lebanon, the reporting said continued airstrikes and Hezbollah attacks produced additional fatalities. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said an airstrike on a car in Kfar Dajal killed two people, while another strike hit a home in Lwaizeh, killing three, and it reported two other deaths from a strike on Shoukin.
On the Israeli side, the Israeli military Arabic-language spokesperson Lt. Col. Ella Waweya posted on X that the Israeli air force carried out about 50 airstrikes over the past 24 hours targeting Hezbollah infrastructure and members. Hezbollah said it attacked, with a drone, Israeli troops who gathered inside a house in the coastal village of Bayed.
The Israeli military has also released videos it says show Hezbollah positions being destroyed in southern Lebanon, including a video released Friday that it said shows soldiers walking among destruction in the Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil after an Israeli flag was carried. The military said on its website that it “destroyed the town’s stadium after it was discovered to be booby-trapped.”
The war between Israel and Hezbollah began on March 2 after Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel, two days after the United States and Israel launched a war on Iran. Israel has since carried out hundreds of airstrikes and launched a ground invasion in southern Lebanon, capturing dozens of towns and villages along the border. Over recent weeks, the reporting said the Israeli army has been leveling neighborhoods in towns and villages near the Lebanese-Israeli border, describing its actions as destruction of buildings used as outposts by the Iran-backed group.
Despite the fighting, diplomatic talks have continued alongside military activity. The reporting said Israel and Lebanon have held their first direct talks in more than three decades, following Washington’s 10-day ceasefire that went into effect on April 17 and was later extended by three weeks. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said that since the war began two months ago, 2,659 people have been killed and 8,183 wounded.
The Associated Press writer Ibrahim Hazboun in Jerusalem contributed to the report.