Despite a June ceasefire technically being in effect, new weekend Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon mark the deadliest escalation since fighting largely came to a halt earlier this year.
The Saturday attack saw eleven Lebanese killed - among them three children - and 19 injured after Israeli warplanes bombed several areas. It's by far the biggest mass casualty event since the ceasefire took effect, also in terms of extent of destruction.
"Israeli warplanes bombed a home on the outskirts of the village of Ansar, killing seven people and flattening the building early on Saturday morning, The Guardian reported. "Rescue services were working at the site to try to find survivors and locate bodies."
"Another airstrike hours later on a home in the town of Deir al-Zahrani killed two, wounded nine and covered the streets in rubble and smoke," the report continued to detail. "An Israeli drone also targeted a motorcycle in the nearby city of Nabatieh, but it was unclear if the driver was killed."
Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) wrote of the fresh escalation wrote, "The Israeli enemy committed a massacre in the southern town of Ansar at dawn today, resulting in seven martyrs and three wounded."
Houses and structures across various villages were reported flattened. Israel may have been acting related to reported Hezbollah attacks on IDF troops early Saturday in which which three soldiers were wounded. It was said to be the result of an explosive drone sent from Lebanon.
Israel is threatening to ramp up its operations in Lebanon once again, with Defense Minister Israel Katz saying Sunday morning post on X: "No score on any front will remain unsettled." He added: "We will forcefully defend our soldiers and citizens."
According to more from Israel's side of the narrative:
The Israeli military spokesperson, Ella Waweya, said Israel had attacked “Hezbollah infrastructure” in the Ansar and Nabatieh area in response to the group’s fighters attacking soldiers in the Ali Taher area.
...On Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces said it had killed a senior Hezbollah commander in an airstrike in the southern Lebanon town of Deir al-Zahrani the previous day. It said the Saturday morning strike on Ali Muhammad Fakhr al-Din came in response to a Hezbollah explosive drone attack in the predawn hours Saturday that seriously wounded three soldiers.
Lebanese media reported that the Deir al-Zahrani strike on Saturday morning killed two people.
Aftermath of Israeli attack on the southern Lebanese town of Deir al-Zahrani:
And additionally there was a rare Saturday statement (on the Jewish Sabbath) from Prime Minister Netanyahu's office: it said "Hezbollah violated the ceasefire in Lebanon by attacking our soldiers in the security zone, which protects Israeli communities just across the border."
"The IDF responded by striking the Hezbollah terror headquarters which ordered the attack," the PM's office said. "Only later did the IDF learn that Hezbollah deliberately put civilians in that military compound," the statement added.