Israeli drone strikes near Beirut and airstrikes across southern Lebanon killed at least 17 people on Saturday, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry and Lebanese state media. The reported attacks came as Israel and Hezbollah continued daily attacks after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah began on April 17.
Lebanese state media said three Israeli drone strikes on vehicles just south of Beirut killed four people. Reuters reported that two of the strikes on Saturday took place on the Beirut-to-Sidon highway, while the third happened on a road leading to Lebanon’s Chouf region. An Associated Press journalist at the scene saw a dead body on the highway in the town of Saadiyat.
In southern Lebanon, the Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike on the southern village of Saksakiyeh killed at least seven people, including a child, and wounded 15, calling it an initial count. The agency also reported strikes in southern Lebanon, including one on the village of Bourj Rahhal that killed three people and another in Maifadoun that killed one.
The Health Ministry also described a separate drone strike in the city of Nabatiyeh, saying three Israeli drone strikes killed a Syrian man riding a motorcycle with his 12-year-old daughter. The ministry said the man and daughter initially moved away from the first strike site, but were then hit again by another drone attack; the girl later died in a hospital, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.
In a statement, the Health Ministry denounced what it called “barbaric targeting” and the “deliberate violence against civilians and children in Lebanon,” saying the strike marked “grave violations of International Humanitarian Law.” The ministry’s statement added that the attack was part of an ongoing series of violations.
Israel’s military said Hezbollah fired explosive drones into Israel near the border with Lebanon, and said three soldiers were wounded, one of them seriously. Israel’s military also said Hezbollah fired drones inside Lebanon, including one that hit an Israeli vehicle without inflicting casualties.
Hezbollah said it carried out several attacks inside Lebanon, and it claimed a drone attack on an Israeli military post in the northern town of Misgav Am. 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 Hezbollah’s main backer, Iran.
The fighting has continued despite ceasefire efforts that have included U.S.-brokered steps. A 10-day ceasefire declared in Washington went into effect on April 17 and was later extended by three weeks. Earlier, Lebanon and Israel held their first direct talks in more than three decades, and U.S. officials have scheduled a new round of talks in Washington over two days starting Thursday.
In parallel, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam held talks in Damascus on Saturday with Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, according to state media. The meeting addressed strengthening relations and boosting security cooperation amid regional wars, and Salam told reporters before returning home that Lebanon would not be used again to harm “our Arab brothers, on top of them Syria,” a remark he said was aimed at Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria’s civil war.