At least seven people were killed Saturday in a series of Israeli airstrikes across southern Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency, as the three-week-old ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah showed further signs of collapse. The strikes hit a car in the village of Kfar Dajal, killing two people; a home in Lwaizeh, killing three; and the village of Shoukin, where two more died. The attacks came as Israeli ground forces used bulldozers to demolish sections of a Catholic convent in the border village of Yaroun, a move that swiftly drew condemnation from the Church.
Gladys Sabbagh, the superior general of the Basilian Salvatorian Sisters, told The Associated Press: “What we heard is that it was destroyed with bulldozers.” She described the convent as a small compound housing two nuns who had already fled because of the war. The site included a school that had been closed since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war and a clinic recently relocated to the nearby village of Rmeich.
Israel’s military said in a statement that during operations to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure in Yaroun, a house with no religious signs was damaged. Once the army learned the building was linked to a church, soldiers “prevented any further damage from being done,” the military said. The statement added that Hezbollah had fired rockets from the compound toward Israel on several occasions.
The Catholic Church in Lebanon rejected that account. Rev. Abdo Abou Kassm, director of the Catholic Center for Information, said: “We are against all practices against places of worship and churches. These are places to spread peace, love and education. These are not military bases.”
The demolition at the convent followed earlier controversy after images circulated of an Israeli soldier wielding an ax against a fallen statue of Jesus on the cross in the southern Lebanese village of Debel, which prompted widespread condemnation in Lebanon and internationally.
Israel’s military Arabic-language spokesperson, Lt. Col. Ella Waweya, said on X that the Israeli air force carried out about 50 airstrikes in the previous 24 hours targeting Hezbollah infrastructure and members. Hezbollah, for its part, said it attacked with a drone Israeli troops gathered inside a house in the coastal village of Bayed. The Israeli military also issued a new warning for residents of nine southern villages to evacuate.
The latest war between Israel and Hezbollah began on March 2 when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel, two days after the United States and Israel launched a war on Iran, Hezbollah’s main backer. Israel responded with hundreds of airstrikes and a ground invasion of southern Lebanon, capturing dozens of towns and villages along the border. Since then, Lebanon and Israel have held their first direct talks in more than three decades. A 10-day ceasefire brokered in Washington went into effect on April 17 and was later extended by three weeks, though violations have been reported by both sides.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said that since the war began, 2,659 people have been killed and 8,183 wounded, figures that do not distinguish between combatants and civilians.