Israeli drone strikes on vehicles in Lebanon killed 12 people, including a mother and her two children, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, as airstrikes continued across multiple areas and officials pointed to rising risks to civilians and to U.N. peacekeepers.
The ministry said Wednesday’s attacks struck seven vehicles, including three on the main highway just south of Beirut. It did not provide a vehicle-by-vehicle count of casualties, but Lebanese National News Agency reporting located two of the drone attacks on a highway linking Beirut with the southern port city of Sidon and described a third strike near the busy freeway by the town of Saadiyat.
The Health Ministry said those highway-area strikes killed eight people in total, including the mother and her two children. The ministry also said a fourth strike took place in the early afternoon near the northern entrance of Sidon, killing one person and wounding another, and that three additional drone strikes on cars deeper in southern Lebanon killed three people.
The Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah infrastructure in several areas in southern Lebanon, hours after it told residents of six southern villages to evacuate. In southern Lebanon, Israeli airstrikes were reported in multiple towns and villages, while Hezbollah said it carried out additional attacks on Israel, with exchange of fire continuing even after a U.S.-brokered ceasefire took effect on April 17.
A United Nations accusation also sharpened pressure on both sides as attacks continued. The U.N. said Hezbollah carried out drone strikes near U.N. peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon, and Farhan Haq, a deputy spokesperson for the secretary-general, said António Guterres’ message to both sides was that they must observe the ceasefire and stop all attacks.
UN peacekeepers said the situation near their positions was deteriorating. UNIFIL said it is increasingly concerned about fighting between Hezbollah and Israeli soldiers near its positions, putting peacekeepers at risk, including with explosions of drones in and around U.N. bases. UNIFIL said a “presumed Hezbollah” drone detonated inside its headquarters in the coastal town of Naqoura on Tuesday, after earlier presumed Hezbollah drone detonations on Monday and Tuesday; UNIFIL said no one was injured in the incidents, but some buildings were damaged.
In parallel, diplomatic efforts were also moving forward. Lebanon and Israel are scheduled to hold another round of direct talks in Washington on Thursday as the Trump administration pushes for a breakthrough between the neighbors that have been in a state of war since Israel was created in 1948.
The latest Israel-Hezbollah war began on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel two days after the United States and Israel attacked Iran. The Health Ministry said Wednesday that since the war began, 2,896 people have been killed and 8,824 have been wounded.