Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli strike on Habboush, Nabatieh, on May 9, 2026. (Credit: Abbas Fakih/AFP)
SOUTH LEBANON — Southern Lebanon was subjected to another day of intense Israeli attacks during a "cease-fire" in which Israel does not cease to fire. While Israeli strikes and shelling killed several dozen people across multiple regions of the south, its targeted attacks on vehicles also picked up frequency, with three drone strikes on cars in the Chouf region, about twenty kilometers south of Beirut, less than an hour apart.
In the middle of the afternoon, two separate drone attacks hit two vehicles in Saadiyat, on the highway connecting Saida to Beirut, our correspondent in the region reported. The first killed the driver of the targeted vehicle, while the second killed two people and injured one. These are the first Israeli strikes in this region since the "cease-fire" went into effect on April 17.
Two days before the start of the theoretical truce, drones had already targeted vehicles in the same area. The drone strike on a car in Jahilieh — an area in the Chouf south of Beirut spared since October 2023 — also killed three people. According to village residents, a first missile was fired at the car but missed it. The passengers then tried to escape by getting out of the vehicle, before being hit by a second missile.
Deadly strike on building housing displaced people in Saksakieh
In Maaroub (Sour), a strike carried out using the same modus operandi behind a gas station killed one person and wounded two others. A drone attack also struck a motorcycle in Hariss (Bint Jbeil), seriously injuring its driver, who was taken to the hospital. In Shehabieh (Sour), a drone fired at a tire store on the main road, wounding one.
An Israeli drone attack struck a motorcycle killing a Syrian national and his 12-year-old daughter. They were hit twice and the man was killed. The drone then “directly targeted the little girl for a third time.”
According to a source from the Health Ministry, another Israeli drone attack struck a motorcycle near the Zawtar intersection in Nabatieh Fawqa, killing a Syrian national and his 12-year-old daughter. They were reportedly hit twice and the man was killed. The drone then “directly targeted the little girl for a third time,” according to the same source, which condemned “deliberate violence against civilians and children.”
In Burj Rahal (Sour), a drone fired on a vehicle near the Martyr Mohammad Saad Foundation, killing three men working in neighboring orchards: Hassan Siblini, Mehdi Moghrabi, and Ibrahim Qassem. Another Israeli strike also targeted a car at the northern entrance of Sour, near the Hiram hospital intersection, killing its driver, according to our correspondent. In the early evening, an Israeli airstrike on a building in Bedias killed at least one person.
An Israeli strike on Jibsheet killed a man as he was watering his plants in front of his house.
Also earlier in the afternoon, Israel carried out a strike on a building in Saksakieh (Saida), where three families from Jibsheet had taken refuge. The attack killed at least seven people and wounded three others, while two people are reported missing.
Elsewhere, an Israeli strike on Habboush (Nabatieh) killed three people, while another on Jibsheet killed a man as he was watering his plants in front of his house. In Maslakh, a neighborhood of Nabatieh, three people were killed by Israeli military operations and several others were wounded. Nighttime attacks also killed at least five people in southern Lebanon: three in Deir Zahrani (Saida) and two in Harouf (Nabatieh).
This sequence of deadly, indiscriminate attacks comes as the Israeli army on Saturday morning ordered residents of nine southern villages — Tayr Debba, Abbasieh, Burj Rahal, Maaroub, Barish, Arzoun, Jennata, Ain Baal (all located in the Sour district), as well as Zrarieh (Saida) — to evacuate.
Rescue efforts hampered by intensity of bombing
Rescue teams in southern Lebanon faced major challenges conducting their operations and accessing hit sites due to the intensity of Israeli strikes in various regions and the menacing low-altitude drone flights.
For its part, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for two new attacks on military positions in northern Israel, at Misgav Am and near the Abbad site, as well as attacks on Israeli soldiers in the South, notably at Rshaf (Bint Jbeil) and Bayyada (Sour). It also said it had hit an Israeli army drone in Abbasieh (Sour).
