Israeli strike kills 4, including principal, in southern Lebanon: Ministry of Health

Four people, including the principal, were killed in an Israeli car strike in southern Lebanon on Monday, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said, in one of the deadliest attacks in recent weeks.

The strike is a test of a ceasefire announced last month that has greatly reduced, but not ended, violence in southern Lebanon, a major conflict zone between Iran-aligned Hezbollah and Israel.

The Israeli army said it hit a vehicle carrying four people who were coming to what it called a “security zone” in southern Lebanon, putting its soldiers at risk.

The Ministry of Health identified the victims as principal Esperanza Ghandour, her mother, a female domestic worker and a male foreign worker.

Ghandour was inspecting repairs to his war-damaged home in Nabatieh and was returning when the car was hit, according to a local source and a Lebanese news agency.

At Najdeh Hospital in Nabatieh, a health official told Reuters by phone that the staff heard the strike before the victims arrived.

“We heard an explosion and saw smoke,” said the official. The strike took place in an area that local residents considered safe from attack, he added.

Israeli drone strikes have continued since the ceasefire, but they are less frequent than before, he said.

Fear of being forced to run away again

Israel has established what it describes as a security zone that extends about 10 kilometers south of Lebanon along the border, saying it is necessary to protect communities in northern Israel from attacks by Hezbollah.

Israeli troops have been deployed in parts of the area despite the ceasefire, and Lebanon says Israel’s presence violates its sovereignty.

For the residents of Nabatieh and nearby villages, the strike disrupted the little sense of security that had returned under the ceasefire.

Ali Safa, 32, said his family has been forced to flee south Lebanon several times since the deal was announced in late June.

“It has brought back fear,” Safa said about Monday’s strike.

“A few other businesses that were open closed again due to the daily strikes, and families left. There is always a small hope that at least you are back in your home, but every day you wonder if you will leave again.”

Lebanon has suffered the worst carnage of the US-Israeli war with Iran since Hezbollah opened its front in support of Tehran on March 2, prompting Israeli attacks and incursions into southern Lebanon.

The United States and Qatar negotiated aid from Iran. Tehran has insisted on a ceasefire in Lebanon as part of talks aimed at ending the wider regional conflict, while Israel has postponed an attack on Lebanon at the behest of Washington.

The Israeli attack has killed more than 4,300 people in Lebanon, according to the Ministry of Health, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

On the Israeli side, at least 36 people – including 32 soldiers and four civilians – have been killed in the fighting, according to Israeli authorities.