Early Saturday morning, Israeli forces launched a series of intense airstrikes across southern Lebanon. These attacks tragically claimed one life, injured seven others, and temporarily disrupted a vital highway connecting Beirut with the southern regions, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
The pre-dawn raids specifically targeted a heavy machinery sales facility in the village of Msayleh, where numerous vehicles were obliterated in the blasts.
Tragically, a vegetable transport vehicle passing through the area during the attack was caught in the crossfire. Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV reported that one person in the vehicle was killed, and another sustained injuries.
The Health Ministry later confirmed that the sole fatality was a Syrian citizen. Among the injured were another Syrian national and six Lebanese individuals, including two women.
The Israeli military stated that their objective was a location used to store machinery intended for the reconstruction of infrastructure for the militant group Hezbollah.
Despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire that concluded the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah conflict in late November, Israel has continued to launch almost daily airstrikes, resulting in dozens of deaths. Israel maintains that these operations are necessary as Hezbollah attempts to re-establish its operational capabilities after incurring significant losses during the previous hostilities.
Earlier this month, Volker Turk, the UN human rights chief, urged renewed diplomatic efforts to achieve a lasting peace in Lebanon after the war. He highlighted that, as of late September, at least 103 civilians had been confirmed killed in Lebanon since the ceasefire agreement.
The latest Israel-Hezbollah conflict tragically claimed over 4,000 lives in Lebanon, including hundreds of civilians, and inflicted an estimated $11 billion in damage, as reported by the World Bank. On the Israeli side, the conflict resulted in 127 deaths, among them 80 soldiers.
This extensive conflict initially erupted on October 8, 2023, when Hezbollah launched rockets across the border. This offensive came just a day after a devastating Hamas-led attack into southern Israel ignited the war in Gaza. In retaliation, Israel initiated shelling and airstrikes in Lebanon, leading to an escalating confrontation that intensified into a full-scale war by late September 2024.