Arabic version: الضربات الإسرائيلية في لبنان تؤدي إلى 24 حالة وفاة
Israeli attacks across Lebanon have killed at least 24 people despite a United States-brokered ceasefire, now in its third week. The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health reported that an Israeli attack on the town of al-Saksakieh in the southern Sidon district killed at least seven people, including a child, and wounded 15, including three children.
Elsewhere, Israeli attacks killed a Syrian man and his daughter in Nabatieh; three people in Nahrain; three in Saadiyat; another three in Haboush; and one in Mefdoun. Later, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that one person was killed when an Israeli drone fired a guided missile at a motorcycle near shops along the Toul–Doueir road; and three young men were killed in an air raid on a building in the al-Bayad neighbourhood of Nabatieh. According to Al Jazeera, the death toll has risen significantly since the onset of Israeli military operations in Lebanon on March 2, with nearly 500 fatalities reported since April 16.
The Israeli army separately issued new forced displacement orders for several towns as it continued to occupy parts of southern Lebanon, maintaining a buffer zone that prevents the return of hundreds of thousands of displaced people and demolishing houses within it. Reporting from Tyre, in southern Lebanon, Al Jazeera’s Obaida Hitto said there were no signs of a ceasefire on the ground as the death toll from Israel’s “violent strikes” throughout the day “keeps rising”.
The situation escalated just ahead of planned negotiations between Israel and Lebanon set for May 14 and 15 in Washington, D.C. The U.S. Department of State expressed intentions to mediate discussions aimed at achieving a comprehensive peace agreement. However, Lebanese authorities have insisted that Israeli strikes must cease before any negotiations can proceed. Meanwhile, Hezbollah has continued its military operations, launching artillery and drone attacks against Israeli positions, further complicating the already tense situation in the region.
