Israel has killed at least 31 people and wounded scores of others since early Friday across Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) and witnesses, as Tel Aviv pushes Lebanon deeper into the raging US-Israeli war on Iran.
At least eight people were killed and nine others wounded on Friday when an Israeli strike targeted a residential building in the eastern outskirts of Sidon in southern Lebanon.
In the nearby village of Irkey, Mohammad Taqi buried his four daughters, aged six to 13, who were killed in an Israeli attack on Thursday along with five relatives.
"The Israeli enemy says every day that it is targeting infrastructure," he told AFP news agency at the funeral, his head wrapped in a white bandage and his face covered in wounds.
"Is this the infrastructure? Have you seen it?" he asked, gesturing to his daughters' bodies.
"I've lost four daughters. I don't have any others. Zainab, Zahra, Malika and Yasmina," he said, adding that he had also lost his parents, brother, nephew and brother-in-law in the same Israeli strike.
In the town of Qleileh in the Tyre district, rescue teams recovered two bodies from the rubble of a collapsed building that was struck at dawn, while search operations continue for additional missing persons.
On the road between the towns of Kfartabnit and Arnoun in the Nabatieh district, one person was killed after an Israeli drone targeted a motorcycle he was riding. Another person was killed in the town of Yater in the Bint Jbeil district following an Israeli airstrike on the area.
In the central Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, an Israeli airstrike targeted a residential apartment in the town of Bar Elias, killing the two sons of a local official from the Islamic Group, identified as Youssef al-Dahouk, and injuring him along with two others.
Israeli warplanes also launched extensive airstrikes targeting areas in the Hermel district, according to local reports.
In the capital, Beirut, one person was killed when an Israeli strike targeted a car in the Jnah area of the city’s southern suburbs.
In the town of Shebaa in the Hasbaya district of southern Lebanon, Mahmoud Akrama Nassif and Hadi Mohammed Kanaan were killed in an Israeli drone attack targeting them on the outskirts of the town.
In Sidon, casualties were also reported after an Israeli strike hit a residential building in the city’s eastern outskirts, though authorities have not announced a final toll.
Sheikh Hassan Ghandoor was also killed after an Israeli strike targeted his home in the town of Nabatieh al-Fawqa.
In the town of Abba in the Nabatieh district, Attaf Muallim Sabra was killed, and her husband was injured when an Israeli strike targeted their home.
In the Tyre district, an Israeli drone targeted a car on the road to Shaaitiyeh, killing one person. Also in Tyre, three people were killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted the city of Bint Jbeil.
Israeli aircraft also targeted the area between the towns of Siddiqine and Ramadiyah, while another strike hit the town of Tayr Felsayh near the bridge earlier Friday.
At the same time, Israeli artillery shelled the outskirts of the towns of Qawzah and Ramieh in the Bint Jbeil district in southern Lebanon.
Two children were killed in an Israeli air strike that targeted a building near Al- Safir School in Al-Ghaziyah municipality of southern Lebanon.
NNA also reported that medics from the Civil Defense of the Islamic Message Scouts and the Islamic Health Authority were killed in an Israeli air raid on Souaneh village in Nabatieh Governorate. The agency did not specify the number of those killed.
Six people, including a child, were also killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a house in the city of Nabatieh in southern Lebanon, the agency reported.
'Existential battle'
Also on Friday, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said his group was ready for a long confrontation with Israel.
"We have prepared ourselves for a long confrontation, they (Israelis) will be surprised on the battlefield," Qassem said in his second televised address since the latest war began.
"This is an existential battle, not a limited or simple battle."
Hezbollah began targeting Israeli military sites on March 2 in response to ongoing Israeli attacks on Lebanon despite a ceasefire agreement reached in November 2024 and the killing of Iran’s then-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Tehran.
Israel expanded its war the same day with air strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs and areas in southern and eastern Lebanon and launched a limited ground incursion in southern Lebanon on March 3 after beginning a joint campaign with the United States against Iran on Feb. 28.
Lebanon’s authorities said Thursday evening that Israel’s expanded attacks on the country have killed nearly 800 people, wounded 1,933, and displaced about 822,000 others.
