Israel kills 11 in deadliest strikes on Lebanon since June ceasefire
Israel kills 11 in deadliest strikes on Lebanon since June ceasefire
Emily BlumenthalSun, August 16, 2026 at 2:37 AM UTC
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The Israeli air strikes targeted a residential neighbourhood in the village of Ansar - Houssam Shbaro/Anadolu via Getty Images
At least 11 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon in the deadliest attack since a ceasefire with Hezbollah was agreed in June.
Among the dead were reportedly seven people in a house in the village of Ansar, including a Hezbollah commander who the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) accused of using his family members as “human shields”.
The IDF said the bombardment was in response to a Hezbollah attack against Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, where Israel has established what it describes as a buffer zone.
An officer and two soldiers were seriously injured in the explosive drone attack on Friday night, the IDF said.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, accused Hezbollah of violating the ceasefire that went into effect on June 20, separate from the truce between Israel and Lebanon.
Israel said the bombardment was in response to a Hezbollah attack that seriously injured an IDF officer and two soldiers - Houssam Shbaro/Anadolu via Getty Images
The fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah has been hanging by a thread since the IDF launched air strikes on southern Lebanon on Aug 5, despite ongoing peace talks to end the war. Since then, the Israeli military has bombed the country daily.
An eighth round of US-brokered direct negotiations between Israel and Lebanon is set to take place in early September in Rome.
The strikes risk angering Donald Trump, who has demanded that Israeli troops leave southern Lebanon under the terms of a framework agreement that would see Israel partially withdraw from their buffer zone.
In response to Saturday’s attacks, Hezbollah, an Iran-backed terror group, said Israel would be “met with what they deserve” and urged Lebanese officials to walk away from talks.
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A Hezbollah commander was among those reportedly killed in the attack on Ansar - Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP
The strikes reportedly killed seven people in a house in the village of Ansar, and an additional four in Deir El Zahrani, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA). More than a dozen others were wounded, including women and children.
The IDF said it had killed Ali Samir Al-Haj Hassan, a battalion commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan Force, an elite special operations unit, along with several other militants in Ansar.
NNA said two women and three children were among the dead. The Israeli army acknowledged that civilian members of Hassan’s family had been “harmed”, but did not say whether they had been killed.
Nawaf Salam, Lebanon’s prime minister, said “the women and children who were killed are not military targets”.
However, the IDF insisted that Hassan was a “lawful target” and claimed he had used his family members as “human shields”. The Israeli military said Hassan’s family was “not the target of the strike”.
Lebanon’s president condemned the strikes as a ‘clear message’ aimed at US efforts to implement a ceasefire - Mohammed Zaatari/AP
Joseph Aoun, the Lebanese president, condemned the strikes as a “clear message” aimed at US efforts to implement the framework agreement.
Under the terms of the US-mediated ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, IDF soldiers would remain in southern Lebanon until Hezbollah disarms, and territory would be gradually handed back to the Lebanese army.
The IDF has already begun a pilot programme of relinquishing to Lebanese troops several pockets of land that have been cleared of militants.
Hezbollah has repeatedly rejected that deal, claiming that it would amount to surrender, and has insisted that Israel fully withdraw from Lebanon.
Since the Iran-backed group joined the war against the US and Israel on March 2, the IDF’s heavy air and ground response has killed more than 4,300 people and displaced 800,000 others.
Source: “AOL Breaking”
