Sour district particularly targeted by Israeli attacks; Lebanese Army withdraws to coast

Israeli aircraft bombed several neighborhoods in northern Sour and nearby towns on Friday, just hours after an evacuation order targeted several villages, while south of the city, the Lebanese army was forced to withdraw from one of its positions in Mansouri on the coast.

Several hours after Israeli threats targeting Shabriha, Hamadieh, and Hosh, as well as the Zuqouq al-Mufdi neighborhood in the city of Sour and Maashouk, a series of airstrikes hit the region, which had already been shelled since the morning.

Three Israeli airstrikes, one carried out by a drone, targeted the buildings of al-Najda el-Shaabiya, Taj al-Deen, as well as public housing in Sour, our correspondent in southern Lebanon reports.

The director of Hiram Hospital in Sour, located at the intersection leading to Abbassieh, told our correspondent that the strike on the building adjacent to “Najda shaabiya” "shook the entire establishment," which was covered in smoke. According to the director, Salman Aidibi, two maintenance workers who were in the hospital courtyard and four nurses inside the building were injured by glass shards. A ceiling also collapsed in one of the corridors. According to him, this is not the first time the hospital has suffered damage, as many strikes have hit the area in recent months.

Strikes also targeted a building at the intersection leading to Abbassieh, as well as shabriha, Srifa, and Tayr Filsey. The latter two localities were not included in the evacuation order. Drone attacks also targeted a motorcycle in Batoulieh, injuring its driver at the Shaaitiyeh intersection.

Earlier drone raids targeted Mjadel, Majdal Selm, and a car in front of a husseiniya (Shiite place of worship) in the city of Nabatieh. The latter attack left one dead and two wounded, according to information obtained by our correspondent.

As in the morning, the army again called for the evacuation of another group of villages: Ain Baal (Sour), Kharayeb, Zrarieh, Arab al-Jal (Saida), and Arab Salim (Nabatieh). In a message on X, Israeli Arabic-language army spokesperson Avichay Adraee called on residents to stay at least one kilometer away from these localities before strikes which, according to him, were targeting Hezbollah.

The Israeli army also bombed Sohmor in the Bekaa without prior warning, our local correspondent reports.

In the early evening, the Health Ministry condemned the "persistence of the Israeli enemy in its criminal approach against medical and rescue teams, as well as its insistence on carrying out systematic attacks against the health sector."

According to the Ministry, the Israeli army "directly targeted the primary healthcare center in the city of Sour, reducing it to rubble and causing significant damage to the nearby Hiram Hospital, which injured six members of the hospital's medical staff."

Among the victims are rescuers Jaafar Mohammad Nasr and Fadel Mohammad Bawab.

Lebanese Army withdraws in the western sector

Before this string of attacks and threats, the Lebanese Army evacuated a position in the Amirieh region near Mansouri, south of Sour, overnight, after the area was directly bombarded by an Israeli tank positioned in the occupied town of Bayyada. Mansouri is located on the edge of the "buffer zone" that Israel is establishing in southern Lebanon.

Additionally, Israeli aircraft carried out several series of overnight strikes, notably on Tibnin and Sultanieh (Bint Jbeil district), Mayfadoun, Nabatieh Fawqa and Shoukin, as well as the city of Nabatieh in the district of the same name, Hosh (Sour), and Debbine (Marjayoun). In Harouf (Nabatieh), bombardments destroyed a building near the municipal headquarters, killing four people and injuring two others.

Hezbollah ambushes Israeli patrol

Meanwhile, Hezbollah claimed several attacks on positions of the Israeli army occupying southern Lebanon. It said it had set an ambush with an explosive device for an Israeli patrol trying "to infiltrate at the hydraulic pumping station north of Taybeh," and then shelled these forces, "causing casualties."

According to the party, a helicopter came to evacuate the wounded. It also announced another ambush carried out in the same way against bulldozers moving from Rshaf toward Hadatha in the central sector. Hadatha is located north of the "buffer zone."

For its part, the Israeli army announced the death of one of its soldiers in southern Lebanon, bringing to 20 the number of its personnel killed in clashes with Hezbollah since early March, according to AFP. Sergeant Negev Dagan, 20, "fell in combat in southern Lebanon," the army said in a statement. Commenting on the announcement of the soldier's death, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz declared his intention to "reinforce" the army "which is operating at this moment in Lebanon," and said that Israel "will continue to act with force against any threat until all the objectives of the war are achieved."

In total, 20 Israelis have been killed in Lebanon – 19 soldiers and one contractor working for the army – since the war began on March 2. Over the same period, Israeli bombardments have killed more than 2,800 people in Lebanon, including at least 200 children, according to Beirut.