Israeli strike kills Lebanese poet and translator who brought French classics to Arab readers

An Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon killed the Lebanese poet and translator Zeinab Mahdi Nassereddine, her husband and their four children, erasing an entire family in one of the deadliest attacks of a wider Israeli bombardment over the weekend.

The family was killed before dawn on Saturday when a strike hit the house where they were staying in the town of Ansar, in the Nabatieh district of southern Lebanon.

Nassereddine died alongside her husband, Ali al-Hajj Hassan, and their four children, Zahraa, Hassan, Hussein and Abbas.

Their deaths drew particular attention in Lebanon because of Nassereddine's place in the country's literary world. A poet who began publishing in the 1990s, she later became known for translating major works of French literature into Arabic.

But the strike that killed her family was also part of a much broader increase of violence across southern Lebanon by Israel, one that has raised fresh concerns over whether fighting between Israel and Hezbollah could again expand despite diplomatic efforts to contain it.

Lebanon's health ministry said at least 11 people were killed in Israeli strikes across the Nabatieh area in southern Lebanon, including women and children, bringing the total killed in Israeli attacks since 2 March to at least 4,346, with 12,301 others wounded.

Nassereddine came from a family deeply involved in Lebanon's cultural scene. Her father, Mahdi Nassereddine, is a researcher and editor of classical heritage texts, while her brothers are the poet Mohammed Nassereddine and the artist Hussein Nassereddine.

She began writing poetry during the 1990s, publishing some of her earliest work in Nahar al-Shabab, the youth supplement of Lebanon's leading Annahar newspaper.

Her brother Mohammed later recalled that Gebran Tueni, the late Lebanese journalist and newspaper executive, would select some of her poems for prominent placement in the supplement, where she appeared alongside a generation of writers who later became familiar names in Lebanon's cultural press.

Nassereddine eventually devoted much of her work to literary translation from French.

In 2021, Dar al-Rafidain published her Arabic translation of Victor Hugo's "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame". She also translated Alexandre Dumas's "The Three Musketeers", part of a body of work centred on bringing French classics to Arabic readers.

A Lebanese group representing families of children killed in conflict condemned the strike in Ansar on Sunday and urged the government to document the attack and pursue legal avenues for accountability.

The Gathering of Families of Child Martyrs in Lebanon named each of the children killed, saying they should not become merely another set of numbers in Lebanon's growing toll of civilian deaths.

Attack on Israeli troops near Ali al-Taher hills

The strike on Ansar came during a clash that began hours earlier around the Ali al-Taher hills, a strategically important area north of the Litani River that has increasingly become a flashpoint between Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters.

At about 2:30 a.m. on Saturday, an explosive drone struck an Israeli engineering force operating near the hills, seriously wounding an officer and two soldiers, according to Israeli and Lebanese reports.

About half an hour later, Israeli aircraft and artillery began heavily bombarding the hills and surrounding areas before the strikes spread to other parts of the Nabatieh district, including Ansar and Deir al-Zahrani.

Israel claimed the subsequent attacks allegedly targeted Hezbollah commanders and infrastructure in retaliation for the drone strike.

Lebanese accounts said Israeli forces had been attempting to push further towards the hills when the engineering unit was attacked. Israeli reports suggested the soldiers were already conducting an operation in the area when the drone struck them.

The hills, situated between Kfar Tibnit and Nabatieh al-Fawqa and overlooking the city of Nabatieh, have taken on growing military importance. Israel says they contain underground Hezbollah facilities and has been seeking greater access to the area.

Israeli forces have also brought tanks, armoured vehicles and engineering equipment into nearby positions, according to reports from southern Lebanon.

The fighting comes as efforts to resolve Israel's continued military presence in parts of southern Lebanon appear increasingly strained.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has said Israeli forces would not withdraw from areas they currently occupy in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza, while Washington has publicly signalled opposition to a permanent Israeli military presence in southern Lebanon.

A US State Department spokesperson said such a presence would be inconsistent with existing commitments and with the long-term security of both Lebanon and Israel.

The latest incident also coincides with renewed US diplomacy in the region. Jared Kushner arrived in Israel on Monday for talks expected to include Lebanon as Washington pushes for calm on fronts beyond its confrontation with Iran.

US officials increasingly view preventing renewed war in Lebanon as part of a wider effort to limit simultaneous regional crises.