ALBAWABA- Israeli warplanes carried out multiple airstrikes across southern Lebanon early Thursday, killing two civilians and wounding four in the town of Majdel, just hours after rare direct Lebanese-Israeli talks in Naqoura.
The strike hit a three-story residential building sheltering displaced families, with civil defense teams rescuing survivors from the rubble as fires spread through nearby homes.
The attacks began before dawn, with earlier strikes hitting Mahrouna and Jbaa in the Bint Jbeil district, destroying a multi-story building near an infirmary and sparking fires that damaged olive groves. Lebanon’s Health Ministry confirmed an additional fatality in those areas.
The Israeli military said it targeted Hezbollah “ammunition sites embedded in civilian zones,” claiming the group’s Radwan Force was attempting to rebuild infrastructure despite the ceasefire. Arabic-language warnings were issued minutes before the strikes.
Hezbollah condemned the raids as aggression, while Lebanon’s Foreign Ministry filed a UN complaint citing a “flagrant breach of sovereignty.”
The escalation comes less than a day after Israeli and Lebanese civilian representatives met in Naqoura for U.S.-mediated talks, their first direct dialogue in decades.
The meeting explored economic cooperation, but Israel insisted that Hezbollah must fully disarm before any progress. Lebanese PM Nawaf Salam called the talks a step toward de-escalation, while Netanyahu’s office reiterated a firm year-end deadline.
UNIFIL denounced the latest attacks as clear breaches that endanger civilians and jeopardise the already-uncertain prospects of the Naqoura dialogue.
