Escalation in Lebanon: Israeli Air Strikes Kill 31 Amid Ongoing Conflict

At least 31 people were killed, including several children, and 40 were injured in Lebanon after more than 100 Israeli air strikes targeting what the Israeli military said was Hezbollah infrastructure and combatants in the south and east of the country.

Lebanon’s health ministry said two children and three women were among 14 people killed in Burj al-Shamali, just outside the southern city of Tyre, amid the bombardment on Tuesday and overnight into Wednesday — some of the most intense since an April 16 truce between Israel and the Iran-backed militia.

At least six people were killed and six injured in nearby Maarakeh and another 11 people were killed in strikes on three other communities across the south, according to the health ministry.

Hezbollah claimed it hit Israeli forces and tanks with drones, rockets and artillery as they closed in on the southern Lebanese town of Zawtar al-Sharqiya.

The escalation came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to step up attacks from the air and on the ground to gain control of “strategic areas” and the United States hit Iranian missile launch sites and Iranian mining boats in southern Iran.

“We are deepening our operation in Lebanon. The IDF is operating with large forces on the ground and seizing dominant terrain. We are fortifying the security zone to protect the communities of the north,” Netanyahu told a meeting of the security cabinet on Tuesday.

“Concurrently, we are leading a massive national effort to advance creative and innovative solutions against explosive drones,” he added.

Netanyahu said Monday that Israel needed to respond to Hezbollah’s targeting of northern Israel in recent weeks with fiber-optic drones capable of getting past Israeli air defenses.

Israel renewed its military operation on the territory of its neighbour in March in a bid to shut down Hezbollah attacks on northern Israel, mounting air strikes and sending ground forces deeper into southern Lebanon to establish a buffer “security zone.”

Lebanon insisted it was included in the initial US-Israel cease-fire deal with Iran in early April but Israel denied that.

The United States succeeded in getting the sides around the table for the first time in three decades in mid-April, producing a cease-fire that was extended for a further 45 days in talks in Washington on May 15.

Hezbollah initially attacked Israel a day after the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, 2023. The cross-border fighting was stopped by a U.S.-brokered cease-fire in November 2024 that, like the current agreement to pause the fighting, never fully took hold. (UPI)