Israeli strikes on Friday killed at least 18 people in Lebanon, including two paramedics, as it continued to carry out attacks across the country's south despite a ceasefire announced on April 16.
Two people were killed when Israeli warplanes struck the town of Zrariyeh, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported. Three others were killed and a woman was injured in an Israeli strike on the road between Arab Al Jall and Houmine Al Tahta Road, while a separate strike on the town of Sultaniyah killed four people, it said.
Separately, Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health said four people were killed, including two women, in an Israeli strike on the town of Toura. Local media reported four more deaths in Deir Antar, including paramedic Hussein Ahmad Chaitli, 52, a member of Al Rissala Scout Association, a medical and scout organisation affiliated with the Amal Movement.
Another paramedic, from the Lebanese Civil Defence, was killed in an Israeli strike on his car. Hafez Ali Yahya was driving from Rachaya to his home in Kfarchouba, about 5km away, in the morning when his vehicle was struck, Hussein Faqih, head of civil defence in Nabatieh district, told The National.
“He left the centre at 8.05, and Israel targeted his car shortly after,” Mr Faqih said.
The Lebanese Civil Defence operates under the country's Interior Ministry and is not a party in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organisation, said on Wednesday that the agency had “verified 152 attacks on health care that resulted in 103 deaths and 241 injuries” in Lebanon since the war began on March 2. This includes seven members of the Civil Defence.
The Israeli army on Saturday also issued forced displacement orders to the residents of several villages in Tyre province.
Saturday's attacks came two days after Israel carried out its first strike on Beirut's southern suburbs since a 10-day ceasefire declared in Washington took effect on April 17. The truce was later extended by three weeks. Since then, Israel has killed at least 380 people in Lebanon, and continued to carry out systematic destruction in dozens of border villages it occupies behind the “yellow line” demarcating its self-declared security zone along the southern border.
Hezbollah, for its part, said it attacked Israeli troops, tanks and D9 bulldozers in Al Bayyada, Khiam and Deir Seryan with drones, guided missiles and artillery fire on Saturday.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun also met Simon Karam, who is heading the country’s delegation for further talks with Israel in Washington on Thursday and Friday next week. Lebanon and Israel held their first major high-level engagement since 1993 in the US capital last month.
The talks, described as preliminary contacts between the two countries, are intended to pave the way for a longer-term peace agreement.
The war resumed on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel in support of its main backer, Iran, and in retaliation for Israel's violations of a November 2024 ceasefire. Since then, more than 2,759 people have been killed in Israeli strikes, and 8,512 others injured, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health.
The Israeli attacks and ground invasion of the south have forced more than a million people from their homes.
