Rubble after a deadly Israeli strike on Ansar, southern Lebanon, overnight Aug. 14-15, 2026. (Credit: Muntasser Abdallah)
SOUTH LEBANON — An Israeli airstrike overnight Friday to Saturday on Ansar, in a region of southern Lebanon spared for two months, killed seven people, while another strike in Deir Zahrani killed at least four more people, bringing the total to 11 dead and 19 wounded — the highest death toll since the mid-June cease-fire, according to the Health Ministry.
Israel claimed that it had targeted two Hezbollah commanders, one from the Badr unit and the other from the al-Radwan force.
The strike on a building in Deir Zahrani on Saturday morning, in the Nabatieh district, triggered a mass exodus toward Saida, the capital of southern Lebanon, while massive traffic jams were reported on the roads.
The head of the Deir Zahrani municipal council, Haidar Toufeyli, told our correspondent that the strike, carried out around 11:30 a.m., targeted a two-story residential building, which was completely destroyed. A neighboring building was also severely damaged.
Among the victims were a man and his son, displaced from Mais al-Jabal (Marjayoun), who were in the targeted building, as well as the landlord who had rented the apartment to the family. The fourth victim was a motorist who was passing by at the time of the strike and succumbed to his head injuries.
According to a local source cited by our correspondent, the wife of one of the victims and her children survived, having left the house shortly before the strike.
On Sunday morning, Israel claimed to have killed a "senior commander of Hezbollah's Badr Unit," Abu Hassan Alaa, in Deir Zahrani.
Israel kills displaced people in Ansar
In Ansar, the attack was carried out around 4:30 a.m. on two buildings in the Qalaat al-Meis area, between Ansar and Zrarieh. It killed seven people, including three children and two women, according to the Health Ministry.
Local sources indicated that they were the family of Ali Samir Hajj Hassan, whom Israel identified as a commander in the al-Radwan force. According to the head of the Ansar municipality, contacted by L'Orient-Le Jour, in addition to the seven deaths, three people were wounded, and the targeted two-story building housed two displaced families from Jibsheet and Zibdine, in the Nabatieh district. The targeted area was "exclusively civilian," he addded, emphasizing that it contained "no military sites or presence."
This area had already been regularly targeted during the 15-month cease-fire that preceded the war launched last March by Hezbollah attacks. Ansar is located approximately 15 kilometers west of Nabatieh and about 30 kilometers north of the border.
The mayor stated that some residents of Ansar, gripped by fear, had left the village. His remarks were followed by a statement from the municipality condemning the attacks against civilians, denouncing violations of international conventions and placing responsibility for the security of citizens in southern Lebanon on the Lebanese government and the international community.
Response to Hezbollah 'operations' in Ali Taher
The Israeli army claimed responsibility for the strikes Saturday morning, stating that it had attacked Hezbollah infrastructure in Nabatieh and Ansar in response to "activities carried out against Israeli forces in the so-called security zone" along the border, specifically in the Ali Taher Heights area, which Israel seeks to capture and on which it has launched several attacks in recent hours, including the use of explosives.
The army reiterated its claim to have killed Samir Hajj Hassan, a commander of the al-Radwan force, Hezbollah's elite unit, at a command center in Ansar Ali.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that the airstrikes were in retaliation for a drone attack against Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon, in which three soldiers, including an officer, were seriously wounded.
The bombings of Ansar and Deir Zahrani, unprecedented since the entry into force on June 20 of a theoretical cease-fire between Hezbollah and Israel, were preceded throughout the night by a series of attacks along the front line, including several strikes near Nabatieh Fawqa, in which a restaurant and several shops were destroyed.
Explosive barrels on Ali Taher
Several strikes also targeted the Ali Taher hills, where explosive barrels were dropped Saturday morning. In Mais al-Jabal (Marjayoun), where the Israeli army has intensified artillery fire, its forces set fire to homes. An Israeli drone also dropped a stun grenade near an excavator on the outskirts of Kafra (Bint Jbeil).
Since Friday evening, the Israeli army has also carried out new operations to demolish houses in Haddatha (Bint Jbeil), Zawtar Sharqieh (Nabatieh), Talloussa, Taybeh and Deir Siryan (Marjayoun).
Reporting contributed by our correspondent in the South, Muntasser Abdallah