Israeli airstrikes kill 12 in Lebanon, including woman and two children
Seven cars were hit across Lebanon, killing 12 people, as strikes reached the highway south of Beirut and raised fears for civilians on the move.
Israeli airstrikes struck seven vehicles across Lebanon on Wednesday, killing 12 people, including a woman and her two children, in attacks that pushed the violence beyond the southern front and onto roads civilians use to move between Beirut, Sidon and the south.
Three of the strikes hit vehicles on the coastal highway about 20 kilometres south of Beirut, in the Jiyeh, Barja and Saadiyat area. Lebanese health officials said those attacks killed eight people, including two children. A fourth strike killed one person near Sidon, about 40 kilometres south of the capital, and three more people were killed in strikes on cars in southern Lebanon’s Tyre district.
The pattern matters. Vehicles are not fixed military sites, and striking them on a main coastal artery increases the danger for anyone trying to travel through southern Lebanon, whether for work, family visits or to reach health care. By hitting moving cars on roads that link the capital to southern towns, the attacks widened the sense that nowhere along these routes is fully safe, even outside the traditional battle zones closer to the border.
The Israel Defense Forces said it was striking Hezbollah infrastructure in several areas of southern Lebanon. Before the attacks, Israel told residents of six to seven southern villages to evacuate, depending on the report. That warning, paired with the choice to hit cars rather than buildings, suggests a more mobile targeting approach that can make ordinary traffic itself feel exposed to military action.
The strikes came as Lebanon and Israel were due to begin another round of U.S.-mediated direct talks in Washington. They also landed amid a conflict that has continued despite a ceasefire announced on April 17. Since then, an AFP tally based on Lebanese Health Ministry figures says Israeli strikes in Lebanon have killed more than 400 people.
UNIFIL said it was increasingly concerned about fighting near its positions in southern Lebanon and reported that a presumed Hezbollah drone detonated inside its headquarters in Naqoura on Tuesday. The developments point to a conflict still widening in scope, with civilians in southern Lebanon bearing the immediate risk as each new strike redraws the line between battlefield and roadway.
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