Israel assault kills 1,000 in Lebanon, one million people displaced

Israel’s assault on Lebanon continues to intensify, with more than 1,000 people killed as of Thursday, including at least 118 children, and around one million displaced as airstrikes expand and clashes with Hezbollah continue.

Israeli bombardment has widened across southern Lebanon in recent days, accompanied by ongoing exchanges of fire with Hezbollah, while the humanitarian crisis deepens and officials warn the country is being pushed towards further collapse.

Despite continued fighting in the south, where intense clashes are taking place as Israeli forces attempt to advance along several axes, Beirut’s southern suburbs have witnessed a fragile calm, with Israeli airstrikes pausing for more than 24 hours on Thursday and Friday.

Lebanon’s state electricity provider said a major power substation in the town of Al-Sultaniyah near Bint Jbeil in south Lebanon was knocked out of service following an Israeli strike.

Preliminary information indicates that distribution systems were destroyed and a power transformer, as well as control and protection units, were damaged, cutting electricity to Bint Jbeil, surrounding areas, and several villages in the Tyre district. 

Two people were killed and another injured in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a home in the town of Bafliyeh on Friday. Israeli forces also carried out strikes on the towns of Bint Jbeil, al-Tiri, and Kfartebnit

On Thursday, Israeli forces launched a series of air raids targeting multiple areas across southern Lebanon, including Naqoura, Al-Bouayda, and Aita al-Shaab.

Artillery shelling also hit the outskirts of Ali al-Taher, Nabatieh al-Fawqa, and Kfartebnit.

Israeli forces also demolished five houses in the town of Khiam and struck a house in Qlayaa with five shells.

In northern Israel, four people were injured in Kiryat Shmona by retaliatory rockets fired from Lebanon, including one in serious condition.

Hezbollah said it carried out several rocket attacks on the town, targeting it for the seventh time in one day, and also struck the Yodfat military industries company east of Haifa.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam however said that the country should make its own decisions over war and peace, in order to keep it safe and end its role as an arena for wider regional conflicts.

Salam said tying Lebanon to broader regional agendas does not offer protection but instead gives Israel justification to expand its military operations.

He stressed that the priority is to halt the fighting, protect civilians, ensure their return, and launch reconstruction, alongside restoring state authority and enforcing the law.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun renewed calls for a ceasefire and direct negotiations with Israel during a meeting in Beirut with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, stressing the need for guarantees to ensure the success of any truce amid ongoing military operations.

Barrot announced that France would increase humanitarian aid to Lebanon to €17 million and reaffirmed Paris’s solidarity with the Lebanese people.

French President Emmanuel Macron has also called for direct talks between Israel and the Lebanese government and expressed readiness to host them in Paris.