Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon killed at least 11 people on Saturday, including three children and two women, Lebanese authorities said, as Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun accused Israel of sending a “clear message” ahead of the next round of US-sponsored negotiations between the countries.
Seven people were killed and two wounded when Israeli warplanes struck a home in Ansar, north of Tyre. Another strike in Deir al-Zahrani, north of Nabatieh, killed four people and wounded several others, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry and state news media.
The IDF confirmed launching airstrikes in southern Lebanon overnight, saying it struck Hezbollah infrastructure in response to an attack by the terror group on Israeli troops. However, the military has not commented on the Deir al-Zahrani strike.
A series of strikes were also reported in the Nabatieh area, including heavy attacks on the Ali Taher Ridge, beneath which Hezbollah has a major underground facility.
The IDF said it struck Hezbollah infrastructure in both the Nabatieh area and Ansar, which are some 9 miles apart.
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“The strikes were carried out following an action by the Hezbollah terror organization against our forces in the Ali Taher Ridge area, which is located within the security zone where IDF troops are operating,” the military said, without immediately providing details on the Hezbollah attack.
First aid responders and residents gather as they search the site of an apparent Israeli airstrike that targeted a neighbourhood in the southern Lebanese village of Deir al-Zahrani on August 15, 2026. (Abbas FAKIH/AFP)
Aoun condemned what he called the “ongoing Israeli attacks” on southern Lebanon and “repeated violations of the framework agreement” and international law protecting civilians, according to a statement from his office.
He said the strikes, including the attack in Ansar, amounted to a “clear message on the negotiation process.”
The comments came ahead of the next round of US-sponsored talks, expected to take place in Rome early next month.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam also condemned the strikes.
“The seven martyrs of the Israeli airstrike on the town of Ansar are not military infrastructure and the children and women killed were not military targets,” Salam wrote on X.
“Israel must halt this escalation,” Salam said. He added that the security of the Lebanese people and their right to life on their land “are not subject to negotiation or bargaining.”
A man checks a destroyed home that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Ansar village, southern Lebanon, August 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Israel and Lebanon announced a US-mediated framework agreement on June 26, six days after a precarious truce between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect.
The framework set out a plan for Israeli forces to withdraw from southern Lebanon in exchange for Hezbollah’s disarmament and envisioned steps toward an eventual peace agreement between Israel and Lebanon which technically remain in a state of war.
Hezbollah was not a party to the agreement and has rejected calls for it to disarm. Its leader, Naim Qassem, said Friday that the framework was effectively an Israeli dictate that Lebanese authorities had accepted.
The two countries have so far held seven rounds of talks, most recently in Rome earlier this month.
Despite the truce, Israel has carried out several strikes in Lebanon, saying it is targeting Hezbollah infrastructure and responding to threats against Israeli troops and civilians.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun speaks while meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House, July 21, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Earlier this month, two Israeli soldiers were killed in an explosion in southern Lebanon, the first Israeli fatalities there since the June truce. Hezbollah did not comment on the blast.
The latest Israel-Hezbollah war ignited on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel two days after the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran. The two sides had previously fought when Hezbollah opened fire on northern Israel on October 8, 2023, a day after Hamas’s onslaught attack on Southern Israel.
At least 4,300 people have been killed in Lebanon since the latest round of hostilities began, according to Reuters in figures that do not differentiate between civilians and Hezbollah combatants. Around 40 Israeli soldiers and three civilians, including a military contractor, have been killed on the Israeli side.
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