At least three killed and 23 wounded in Israeli strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon

Israeli strikes intensified across southern and eastern Lebanon on Friday night, killing at least three people and wounding 23, according to a provisional toll from the Lebanese Health Ministry. The attacks hit five localities in the southern regions of Tyre and Nabatieh, as well as the Bekaa Valley in the east.

The escalation followed Israel’s announcement on Thursday that its army had taken control of the Ali Taher mountain ridge near Nabatieh. Israel said the position had served as a strategic site for Hezbollah, and Defense Minister Israel Katz said the army would reinforce its positions there to “prevent the enemy from re-establishing itself in the area.”

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Prevent the enemy from re-establishing itself in the area.

Two young men were targeted while riding a motorcycle in Nabatieh, Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported. The Health Ministry confirmed the deaths. In the village of Rmadiyeh, near Tyre and more than 10 kilometers from the border, an Israeli strike hit a house, killing one person and wounding 15 others, including six rescuers, three women and two children. Another strike wounded a Syrian man in western Bekaa.

Fighting has declined since June after a US-Iran protocol and a framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel, but Israel has continued sporadic strikes in the south and maintains an occupation of a roughly 10-kilometer-wide border strip. UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon Imran Riza said families returning to Nabatieh faced “widespread destruction, the absence of basic services, persistent insecurity.” The article says Lebanese authorities attribute more than 4,300 deaths to Israeli reprisals after Hezbollah began strikes on Israel in support of Tehran.

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Widespread destruction, the absence of basic services, persistent insecurity.