BEIRUT: Twelve people, including two children and a paramedic, were killed as Israel pummelled southern Lebanon on Thursday, even though a ceasefire is in place since April 17.

In a statement, Lebanon’s health ministry reported 11 people were killed in strikes on three different villages in Nabatieh district.

Another strike in Marajayoun district killed one paramedic from a Hezbollah-affilitated rescue service and wounded another, the ministry said.

The strikes came a day after Israel targeted a Hezbollah commander in its first bombing on Beirut’s southern suburbs since early last month.

The Israeli army said that the strike on the southern suburbs killed “the Commander of Hezbollah’s ‘Radwan Force’ Unit”.

A ceasefire in the war between Hezbollah and Israel began on April 17, but combat has largely not stopped in southern Lebanon. Wednesday’s strike near the capital, however, came as a shock.

Photographs taken in the southern suburbs showed the top floors of a residential building totally destroyed, and rescuers searching through the rubble on Thursday morning.

Lebanese state media reported Israeli strikes across a number of southern towns and villages, and the Israeli army issued fresh evacuation warnings to three villages north of the Litani River, and outside the area occupied by Israeli troops following their ground invasion of the border area. Some of the Israeli strikes, on the southern city of Nabatie, targeted a shopping centre and residential buildings, state media and a correspondent said.

In the nearby village of Toul, two rescuers from the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee were wounded in an Israeli strike as they were dispatched following a previous attack, spokesperson Mahmoud Karaki said. The team’s ambulance was heavily damaged, he added.

The Israeli military said in a statement that an “explosive drone impact” wounded four soldiers — one severely — in southern Lebanon the previous day. Despite the ceasefire, Hezbollah regularly claims attacks against Israeli forces occupying parts of southern Lebanon.

Peace talks

The Lebanon ceasefire has underpinned a broader truce in the wider Iran war, with a halt to Israeli strikes in Lebanon being a key Iranian demand in Tehran’s negotiations with Washington.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, in comments reported by Lebanon’s National News Agency on Wednesday, said shoring up a ceasefire would be the basis for any new negotiations between Lebanese and Israeli government envoys in Washington.

Washington last month hosted two meetings between the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to the United States. Hezbollah strongly objects to the contacts.

Announcing a three-week extension of the Lebanon-Israel ceasefire on April 23, President Donald Trump said he looked forward to hosting Netanyahu and Aoun in the near future, and that he saw “a great chance” the countries would reach a peace deal this year.

Israeli and Lebanese envoys will sit down for a fresh round of peace talks in Washington next week, even as Israel presses its campaign against the group Hezbollah in spite of a ceasefire.

The war in Lebanon broke out in parallel with the US-Israeli campaign against Hezbollah’s backer Iran, with Washington still waiting on Thursday for Tehran to respond to its latest proposed deal to put a long-term stop to the wider Middle East conflict and reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz.

A US State Department official confirmed that the new Israel-Lebanon talks would take place on May 14 and 15.

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2026