Israeli Strikes Kill 12 in Lebanon's Kfar Reman
Israeli strikes on the village of Kfar Reman in south Lebanon killed twelve people, including two children and a paramedic. At least 27 people have died in three days of attacks across the region.
Israeli warplanes struck the village of Kfar Reman in Lebanon’s Nabatieh province overnight between Sunday and Monday, killing 12 people, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health. The strikes mark an escalation that has now gripped south Lebanon for three straight days, one that Lebanon’s president says is directly threatening the U.S. brokered agreement meant to keep the border calm.
A fighter jet strike on a residential building in Kfar Reman after midnight killed 11 people, among them two children, and wounded five others. In a separate attack, a drone hit a car carrying members of the Resala Scouts, a paramedic group affiliated with the Amal Movement, killing at least one paramedic. Lebanon’s Ministry of Health said the two strikes together brought the death toll to 12.
The Israeli military said the strikes were a response to two explosive drone attacks that Hezbollah launched against Israeli soldiers, the third such attack in a week, and said none of its troops were hurt. According to the military’s statement, the targets were Hezbollah members transporting weapons, along with weapons depots and command posts.
The strikes were not confined to Kfar Reman. Israeli aircraft also hit Nabatieh, Arab Salim and Deir al Zahrani overnight, the last of these after the Israeli military had already ordered residents to evacuate. A day earlier, at least seven people were killed and 20 wounded in Arab Salim. In the village of Al Mansuri, nearly two thirds of all homes were destroyed. Lebanon’s Ministry of Health says at least 27 people have been killed and 69 wounded in three days of strikes across south Lebanon.
The ministry also said that since March 2, it has recorded 179 Israeli attacks on emergency medical teams, which have killed 135 health workers, a figure suggesting that strikes on medical personnel are not isolated incidents but part of a broader pattern in this year’s escalation. By the same tally, Israeli strikes on Lebanon have killed more than 4,350 people and wounded over 12,300 since the escalation began in early March.
An Al Jazeera correspondent reporting from Kfar Reman described uncertainty and fear as the dominant mood among residents of south Lebanon, many of whom had begun returning to the region and rebuilding their homes after June’s agreement, hoping the attacks were over. Civil defense crews, according to that report, stayed on the ground through the night, their work no longer a rescue operation but one of clearing debris and recovering bodies.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said the strikes were undermining the framework agreement. Speaking with French Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin, who was visiting Lebanon, Aoun said:
“These attacks target the framework agreement process and undermine all efforts to halt the escalation in south Lebanon and the region as a whole.”
The agreement Aoun referred to was signed in June under U.S. mediation and calls for a so called pilot zone in which the Lebanese army would disarm Hezbollah while Israeli forces withdraw from their remaining positions in south Lebanon. Israel, however, still holds parts of the territory and several villages in the south and has not resumed its withdrawal, even as its military says it remains committed to the agreement while continuing what it describes as the removal of threats from Hezbollah.
Separately, two Israeli soldiers were lightly wounded on Monday in a clash with a Hezbollah fighter near Beaufort Castle, a sign that the incidents are not confined to airstrikes but are also playing out on the ground, along a border that was supposed to have grown quieter since the agreement was signed.
Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, has previously rejected the terms of the agreement, insisting that Israel must fully withdraw from Lebanon before the group agrees to end hostilities. With the escalation of the past three days and no agreement in sight on the pace of an Israeli withdrawal, it remains an open question whether the pilot zone will ever take the shape envisioned in June’s deal, or whether U.S. mediation will need a new round of negotiations altogether.
