Three dead in Israeli drone strikes in south Lebanon

BEIRUT — Three people were killed in an Israeli drone strike on a car in Yohmor al-Shakif, in south Lebanon’s Nabatieh district, on Thursday morning, despite the cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah, theoretically in effect since Nov. 27, 2024. 

The Israeli army claimed responsibility for the attack, announcing it targeted "several Hezbollah terrorists who were transporting weapons." Prior to the drone strike, the outskirts of Yohmor al-Shakif were struck by around a dozen Israeli artillery shells.

According to information from L'Orient Today's correspondent in the South, the three victims are indeed members of Hezbollah, identified as Hussein Ali Hallal, from Habbouch, Fawzat Noureddine, and Mohammad Sultan, from Kfar Remmane.

On Wednesday evening, another strike on a car in Ma'roub in Sour district killed the driver. On Thursday, the Israeli army took responsibility for the attack, claiming the elimination "by a drone from Division 91" of Ahmad Adnane Bjeijeh, who it said was "a battalion commander of Hezbollah's Radwan force," the group's elite combat unit. 

Israel 'wants to scare' the inhabitants of South Lebanon

Later on Thursday morning, the Israeli army fired a stun grenade at a group of several people setting up a kiosk to sell coffee in Houla (Marjayoun district). A source in the Houla municipality said that the attack slightly injured two people who were hit by stone splinters after the grenade exploded. The source added that they believe Israel "wants to frighten the inhabitants so that they don't return to the village and resume a normal life."

In the Bekaa, an Israeli drone flew at medium altitude over the Anti-Lebanon, especially the localities of Nabi Sheet, Jenta, Yahfoufa, and Shaara, which are regularly struck by Israeli raids, including two strikes on Wednesday morning.

The November cease-fire agreement ended two months of open warfare between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, which had opened a front against Israel in solidarity with Hamas at the start of the war in the Gaza Strip in October 2023. 

Despite the truce, Israel continues to regularly conduct strikes in Lebanon. According to the Israeli army, these strikes target infrastructures or members of Hezbollah. At least 113 people have been killed in these strikes since late November, according to L'Orient Today’s count.

The most intense escalation since the cease-fire occurred last weekend, when the Israeli army bombed southern and eastern Lebanon around 50 times, killing eight people, in retaliation, it said, to three rockets fired toward northern Israel, which were intercepted over Metula. Hezbollah denied “any involvement” and the attack remains unclaimed.

The cease-fire dictates Hezbollah must demilitarize all areas south of the Litani River, which, at the widest points, runs 30 kilometers north of the border. Israel, in turn, was supposed to withdraw its forces beyond the U.N.-drawn Blue Line, the de facto border, but continues to occupy five positions in southern Lebanon that it considers "strategic."

Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem said on Wednesday that the group would not accept "the continuation of [Israeli] occupation. There is no room for normalization or capitulation in Lebanon," he said in a televised address.