Israeli strikes on car and moped kill one, injure two in south Lebanon

BEIRUT — An Israeli drone bombed a car as it was driving between the villages of Haris and Hadatha in southern Lebanon's Bint Jbeil district on Wednesday, launching two missiles at the vehicle and killing one person, according to reports from L'Orient Today's correspondent in the South.

Earlier on Wednesday, an Israeli drone struck a moped driving through the northern neighborhood of Sour district's Zebqine village. Two people were injured in the strike, including the driver, whose injuries were serious.

Israeli artillery also fired two shells at the outskirts of the village of Blida, in Marjayoun district, and Israeli soldiers occupying a military outpost on Lebanese territory at the Roueissat al-Alam site, targeted Kfar Shuba with machinegun fire.

Israeli Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir visited another one of the five occupied sites on the Lebanese side of the Blue Line, where he declared, during a handover ceremony at the Northern Command, that Israel "will not back down."

"We will not allow threats to resume with greater force," he said, as cited by Israeli army spokesperson Adraee Avichay. "We are here because we have changed the security situation on the northern front," he insisted, despite the fact that Israel still grapples with difficulty returning thousands of residents of northern Israel to their villages following the war with Hezbollah.

Zamir also told soldiers that Israel had killed 240 "saboteurs" and carried out nearly 600 airstrikes on Lebanon since agreeing to a cease-fire in November 2024. According to L'Orient Today's count, well over 300 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since November.

During a phone call with the president of the National Meeting of Agricultural Authorities in Lebanon, Jihad Ballouq, Agriculture Minister Nizar Hani condemned yesterday's bombing by Israel of the fishing port in Naqoura, which injured two fishermen, one of them seriously.

He stressed that "these crimes are not isolated, but are part of a series of systematic attacks targeting Lebanese farmers, threatening their lives and property in an effort to break their resilience."

Reporting contributed by L'Orient Today's correspondent in the South, Muntasser Abdallah.