Israeli drone strikes hit vehicles on a major highway south of Beirut on Saturday, killing four people, while simultaneous airstrikes on villages in southern Lebanon killed at least 13, including a Syrian man and his 12-year-old daughter, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency and the Health Ministry. The attacks marked the latest escalation in a conflict that has continued despite a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah that took effect on April 17.
Drone strikes near Beirut
Two drone strikes hit the highway linking Beirut to the southern port city of Sidon, wounding several people, the National News Agency reported. A third strike on a road leading to the Chouf region killed three. An Associated Press journalist at the scene in the coastal town of Saadiyat saw a dead body on the highway.
Father and daughter killed in Nabatiyeh
In the southern city of Nabatiyeh, three Israeli drones struck a Syrian man and his daughter who were riding a motorcycle, the Health Ministry said. After the first strike, the man and the 12-year-old girl managed to move away, but a second drone strike instantly killed the man. The girl moved about 100 meters (yards) away and was hit by yet another drone while already wounded. She later died in a hospital, the National News Agency reported.
“The Ministry of Public Health denounces this barbaric targeting and the deliberate violence against civilians and children in Lebanon,” the ministry said, adding that the strike was part of an ongoing series “of grave violations of International Humanitarian Law.”
Other southern strikes
The Health Ministry reported that an Israeli airstrike on the village of Saksakiyeh killed at least seven people, including a child, and wounded 15, though it said the count was preliminary. Strikes also hit the villages of Bourj Rahhal, killing three, and Maifadoun, killing one, according to the agency.
Hezbollah attacks and Israeli response
The Israeli military said Hezbollah launched explosive drones into Israeli territory near the border with Lebanon, wounding three soldiers, one of them seriously. It added that Hezbollah drones also struck inside Lebanon, hitting an Israeli vehicle without causing casualties. Hezbollah claimed several attacks on Israeli positions, including a drone strike on a military post in the northern Israeli town of Misgav Am.
Ceasefire and diplomatic efforts
The violence continues despite a ceasefire brokered in Washington that began April 17 and was later extended by three weeks. The truce has been regularly violated, with Israel carrying out hundreds of airstrikes and a ground invasion of southern Lebanon that began after Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel on March 2, two days after the United States and Israel launched a war on Hezbollah’s main backer, Iran. Lebanon and Israel held their first direct talks in more than three decades earlier in the conflict, and a new round of negotiations is set to begin in Washington on Thursday.
Lebanon-Syria talks
Separately, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam met with Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa in Damascus on Saturday to discuss strengthening bilateral relations and security cooperation amid the regional instability. Before returning home, Salam told reporters that Lebanon will not be used again to harm “our Arab brothers, on top of them Syria,” an indirect reference to Hezbollah’s role in Syria’s civil war.