The Lebanese health ministry has reported that at least **13 people**, including **four women and a child**, were killed in recent Israeli air strikes on southern Lebanon. The attacks have intensified concerns over the ongoing conflict in the region.<\/p>\n
Details of the casualties indicate a significant impact on civilian populations. In **Haboush**, located in the Nabatieh district, **eight individuals** lost their lives, among them **two women and a child**. This area had previously been subject to an evacuation order issued by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Further casualties were reported in **Zrarieh** in the Sidon district, where **four people**, including **two women**, were killed. Another person died in **Ain Baal** in the Tyre district. In total, **32 people were injured** on Friday alone.<\/p>\n
The recent strikes occur despite an ongoing **three-week ceasefire extension** between Israel and Hezbollah. The Iran-backed group Hezbollah stated on Saturday that it had targeted Israeli soldiers and military vehicles within Lebanon. The Israeli military, in turn, confirmed the death of one of its soldiers during combat in southern Lebanon on Thursday, bringing the total number of Israeli troop fatalities since early March to **17**.<\/p>\n
In a separate development, the Lebanese army announced on Saturday that its Chief of Staff, **Gen Rudolph Heickl**, met with US Gen Joseph Clearfield at the Beirut air base. During their discussions, “emphasis was placed on the importance of the army’s role and the necessity of supporting it amid the current phase.” Gen Clearfield leads a committee responsible for monitoring the US-backed ceasefire between the warring parties.<\/p>\n
An initial **10-day pause in hostilities** was announced on April 16, following ambassador-level talks in Washington between Israel and Lebanon. These talks marked the first high-level engagement between the two countries, which lack diplomatic relations, since 1993. The subsequent three-week ceasefire extension was announced by US President Donald Trump on April 23. President Trump noted that the second meeting between the two nations “went very well” and affirmed that the US would work with Lebanon “to help it protect itself from Hezbollah.”<\/p>\n
Hezbollah, while not directly involved in the ceasefire agreement, had indicated its willingness to abide by its terms if Israel also respected them. Despite the truce largely halting strikes on Beirut and its southern suburbs, fighting has persisted in other parts of the south, characterized by continued air raids and repeated evacuation orders.<\/p>\n
On April 30, the US embassy in Beirut suggested that a meeting between Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could offer Lebanon “the chance to secure concrete guarantees on full sovereignty, territorial integrity, secure borders, humanitarian and reconstruction support, and the complete restoration of Lebanese state authority over every inch of its territory.” The embassy’s post on X added that this would be “guaranteed by the US.” Lebanese President Aoun also met with US ambassador to Lebanon Michael Issa on Friday, where Issa reaffirmed continued US support for Lebanon.<\/p>\n
The current conflict follows a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah in November 2024, which ended a previous conflict. Subsequently, Israel conducted near-daily attacks on targets and individuals it claimed were linked to Hezbollah. The recent escalation saw Hezbollah launch rockets and drones into Israel on March 2, in retaliation for an attack by the US and Israel on Iran on February 28, which resulted in the death of Iran’s supreme leader. In response, Israel heavily bombarded Lebanon with air strikes. Israeli forces re-entered southern Lebanon in early March, where they have reportedly destroyed villages and continue to occupy **10km (6.2 miles)** of Lebanese territory.<\/p>\n
Since early March, a staggering **2,659 people have been killed in Lebanon**, including **103 health care workers and emergency responders**, according to the Lebanese health ministry, which does not differentiate between combatants and civilians. In addition to the **17 Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon**, **two civilians** have been killed by Hezbollah attacks in Israel. On Saturday morning, the IDF stated it had undertaken “around 50 strikes in the last day” on southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n
#Lebanon #Israel #Hezbollah #MiddleEastConflict #Airstrikes #Ceasefire #Diplomacy #HumanitarianCrisis #SouthernLebanon #NewsUpdate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Deadly Israeli Strikes Hit Southern Lebanon The Lebanese health ministry has reported that at least **13 people**, including **four women and a child**, were killed in recent Israeli air strikes on southern Lebanon. The attacks have intensified concerns over the ongoing conflict in the region. Details of the casualties indicate a significant impact on civilian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iran_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}