A series of Israeli bombardments against the hills of Nabatieh district, in southern Lebanon, on June 27, 2025. (Photo sent to L'Orient Today by residents)
BEIRUT — The Israeli army killed a woman and injured 21 people in a series of airstrikes against southern Lebanon's Nabatieh district late Friday morning.
The attacks began with two rounds of heavy bombardment of the Ali al-Taher and al-Tahra hills located opposite the village of Nabatieh Fawqa, which sits about six kilometers north of the Litani River and 11 kilometers away from the nearest point along the Lebanon-Israel border.
Nabatieh residents told L'Orient Today that their houses shook and the ground trembled during the first round of bombings and that windows of some of the houses shattered with the force of the explosions. As ambulances were reportedly en route to the site of the strikes, another wave of bombings hit the same area.
According to the Health Ministry, seven people were injured in the attack, at least one of whom was a passerby on the road nearby. An initial assessment found that Israeli fighter jets had unleashed 15 strikes in less than 20 minutes. A fire broke out in the wooded area covering the hills and residents reported the sounds of ongoing explosions, the source of which was unclear.
Shortly after, an Israeli drone struck an apartment building in Nabatieh Fawqa itself, killing one woman, who was later identified as Afaf Shahrour, and injuring 14 other people, according to the Ministry of Health.
While the Israeli army announced the bombings of the Ali al-Taher and al-Tahra hills as an operation against what it claimed was signs of Hezbollah working to re-establish an underground site, the army, as of the time of publication, had not made any comment on the strike against the residential building.
An 'underground project' of Hezbollah
the Israeli army announced in a statement on X that it had attacked “a site used to manage Hezbollah's fire and protection systems,” which it said was “part of an underground project that was put out of service following Israeli army raids in the area,” without specifying the date.
The army reportedly “detected attempts at reconstruction, and the terrorist infrastructure in the area was therefore attacked,” the Israeli army's Arabic-speaking spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, wrote in the statement.
The November truce agreement mandated the establishment of a cease-fire monitoring committee through which Israel and Lebanon are meant to file their complaints of violations.
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said he “strongly condemns Israeli attacks in the Nabatieh area," adding that they "constitute a flagrant violation of national sovereignty and the terms of the cease-fire agreement reached last November,” in a message posted on his X account. These strikes, he added, represent “a threat to the stability we are committed to preserving.”
President Joseph Aoun also condemned the attacks, saying the strikes targeted “innocent residents” and demonstrated Israel's "ongoing violations of Lebanon's sovereignty and last November's agreement.”
“Israel continues to ignore regional and international resolutions and calls to cease violence and escalation in the region,” he wrote in a statement published on the presidency's X account. Israel's ongoing aggressions “require effective action by the international community to put an end to these attacks, which do not serve the efforts to consolidate stability in Lebanon and the countries of the region,” he said.
'It's like the South isn't in Lebanon'
"I'm hiding with my brother in the corridor of our house because it's the safest place," Dana*, a resident of Nabatieh, told L'Orient Today shortly after the initial bombardments. "Where is the prime minister, [Nawaf Salam]? And the president, [Joseph Aoun], who repeatedly claims he wants to protect the people of the South?" she asked.
Ali Hashem, who works as a delivery driver said he rushed from Saida to the site of the Israeli strike in Nabatiah Fawqa because his girlfriend lives in the area. "She was really traumatized after the war, so I headed there to be there for her."
"Nabatieh does not look like Nabatieh anymore," he said.
Another resident of Nabatieh, Hussein Tarhini, told L'Orient Today, "It's like the South isn't in Lebanon. We are being bombed and an hour away in Beirut as if we aren't Lebanese."
"If Hezbollah hadn't been weakened in the last war all this wouldn't be happening," he argued.
Maya, another Nabatieh resident whose house faces one of the hills that was bombed, said, “It feels like this situation will never end. Israel can bomb, occupy, and expropriate people wherever it wants, whenever it wants... without anyone saying anything.”
Overnight Israeli attacks
The Israeli army bombed the Shouat neighborhood of Aita al-Shaab, in Bint Jbeil district twice on Thursday night, once around 10 p.m. and again around 11 p.m., marking another night in its long string of violations of the cease-fire agreement. Israeli tanks also fired artillery shells at Aita al-Shaab around the time of the first drone strike.
Israeli machine gun fire targeted the outskirts of Kfar Kila, in Marjayoun district, and tanks fired on Haramoun hill, in Bint Jbeil district. At 2 a.m., Israeli troops stationed at the "Radar" military outpost, one of five it illegally occupies on Lebanese territory along the Blue Line, raided the outskirts of the Hasbaya district village of Shebaa, advancing using machine gun fire.
Reporting contributed by L'Orient Today's correspondent in the South, Muntasser Abdallah.
