Lebanese official media reported extensive Israeli strikes across the country’s south yesterday as the health ministry said at least five people were killed and the war’s overall toll rose to 2,055 dead.
Israel says the fragile Middle East ceasefire does not apply to its battle with the Iran-backed Hizbollah group and has kept up its attacks on the country, while the fighters fight back.
The state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported Israel attacks on around 30 locations in the country’s south yesterday, with additional strikes on the adjacent West Bekaa area.
The health ministry said an Israeli strike on Qana killed five people, including three women, and wounded 25 others, while the NNA said the raid targeted ‘homes and infrastructure’.
The southern town suffered huge destruction as an excavator worked to clear debris and first responders carried a body out from under the rubble.
The ministry raised the overall toll in Lebanon to 2,055 dead, including 165 children and 87 health workers, since war erupted on March 2.
Lebanon was pulled into the Middle East conflict when Hizbollah fired rockets at Israel after US-Israeli strikes killed Iran’s supreme leader. Israel has responded with massive strikes and a ground invasion.
Pope Leo XIV, who visited Lebanon late last year, expressed his closeness to the Lebanese people yesterday and said there was a ‘moral obligation to protect the civilian population from the atrocious effects of war’.
In south Lebanon’s Bazuriyeh, Hassan Berro, a rescue worker from the Risala Scout association – which is affiliated with the Hizbollah-allied Amal movement – said: “Our emergency centre was hit and completely destroyed, along with all its contents, including beds and medical equipment.”
Hizbollah said it launched attacks on Israeli targets across the border and inside Lebanon, including against troops in the southern town of Bint Jbeil, where the NNA reported heavy fighting.
Israel’s army yesterday accused Hizbollah of using the town’s hospital compound “for military purposes.”
Officials from Lebanon, Israel and the US are due to hold direct talks in Washington tomorrow, a move Hizbollah has rejected.
Commenting on the planned talks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that ‘we want the dismantling of Hizbollah’s weapons, and we want a real peace agreement that will last for generations’.
Aline Saeed, a seven-year-old girl, survived an Israeli strike on her home in southern Lebanon, where she had gone to bury her father. Instead, a new strike killed her infant sister, Taleen, and other relatives.
This attack on the Saeed family in Srifa occurred on the same day as a US-Iran ceasefire, which many in Lebanon hoped would extend to their country. However, more than 350 people were killed across Lebanon in subsequent strikes.
Nasser Saeed, Aline’s 64-year-old grandfather, witnessed the attack. He described how they were attending a prayer service when the bombing happened. Yesterday, he and other relatives retrieved the bodies of their family members in Tyre, including his grandchild, who was not even two years old. Nasser, injured and grieving, expressed outrage at the lack of concern for civilian lives in the conflict.
“They said it was a ceasefire. Like all these people, we went up to the village. We went to the casket to read the prayers and walk home... suddenly we felt like a storm was landing right on us,” said Saeed.
With bandages to his head and right hand and scratches on his face, Saeed mourned in silence as the women around him turned their faces up to the sky and screamed in agony.
“This isn’t humanity. This is a war crime,” Saeed told Reuters at the hospital where Aline’s mother, Ghinwa, was still being treated.
“Where are the human rights? If a child – a child! – is wounded in Israel, the whole world jumps up. Are we not people? Are we not humans? We’re like them!” he said.
Taleen was born in 2024, in the last round of fierce clashes between Hizbollah and Israel.
“She was born in the war and died in the war,” said Mohammed Nazzal, Ghinwa’s father.
l Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the flashpoint Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem yesterday, saying he was seeking greater access for Jewish worshippers and drawing condemnation from Jordan.
The compound in Jerusalem’s walled Old City is one of the most sensitive sites in the Middle East. Known to Jews as Temple Mount, it is the most sacred site in Judaism and is Islam’s third-holiest site.
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