Israeli Strikes Kill Seven in Lebanon, Demolish Catholic Convent

Israeli airstrikes killed at least seven people in southern Lebanon on Saturday and Israeli bulldozers demolished parts of a Catholic convent in the border village of Yaroun, a strike-and-demolition sequence that underscored how fragile the ceasefire has become and how quickly the conflict can spill into civilian and religious sites.

The dead were reported in several southern towns. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said an airstrike on a car in Kfar Dajal killed two people, while another strike on a home in Lwaizeh killed three. Separate reporting from the same day said two people were killed in Shoukin, suggesting the toll could rise as more local accounts come in from the battered south.

The convent at the center of the outrage belonged to the Archdiocese of Tyre and the Basilian Salvatorian Sisters, a Melkite Greek Catholic order. Gladys Sabbagh, the order’s superior general, said the compound in Yaroun included a school that had been closed since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war and a clinic that had recently been moved to another village. She said the convent housed only two nuns, both of whom had left because of the war, and that the surrounding area had already been emptied by displacement. Yaroun sits in the Bint Jbeil district near the Israeli border, placing it squarely in a zone that has seen repeated cross-border fire.

The Israeli military said that as troops were destroying Hezbollah infrastructure in Yaroun, a house with no religious signs was damaged. It said soldiers stopped further damage once they realized the site was linked to a church. The military also said Hezbollah had used the compound in the past to fire rockets toward Israel, while maintaining that it does not intentionally target religious institutions. The Catholic Church in Lebanon rejected that explanation. Rev. Abdo Abou Kassm said places of worship are meant to spread peace, love and education, not serve as military bases.

The episode carried added weight because it came just days after images circulated of an Israeli soldier wielding an ax against a statue of Jesus in another southern Lebanese village, a scene that drew condemnation in Lebanon and abroad. Lt. Col. Ella Waweya, the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson, said the air force carried out about 50 airstrikes over the previous 24 hours targeting Hezbollah infrastructure and members, showing the convent damage was part of a wider military push rather than an isolated act.

That push has continued despite the ceasefire that took effect on April 17, 2026. Israel also issued new evacuation warnings for residents of nine southern villages, after earlier orders covering dozens of towns and villages, raising the prospect of another wave of displacement in a region already hollowed out by months of fighting. UNIFIL has warned that expanded Israeli military operations and evacuation orders in southern Lebanon risked spiraling the situation out of control. UNICEF said on April 9 that intensified strikes in Lebanon had reportedly killed 33 children and injured 153 in a single day, a grim measure of how steep the civilian cost has become.