An Israeli drone strike killed five people, including a father and his three children, in the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil on Sunday, Lebanon’s health ministry said.
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed carrying out the strike, saying it had targeted and killed an operative of the Hezbollah terror group, and was probing how bystanders were killed.
Lebanon’s state news agency said the strike hit a motorbike and a car.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said in a statement that a father and his three children were killed, with the mother wounded. He said they held US citizenship. The four were in the car that was hit.
The motorcyclist, the apparent target, was also killed.
According to the IDF, the strike in Bint Jbeil killed a member of the Lebanese terror group who was “operating in the area of a civilian population and contrary to the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”
As a result of the strike, “several uninvolved [civilians] were killed,” the military confirmed.
“The IDF regrets any harm to uninvolved [civilians], and works as much as possible to mitigate harm to them,” the IDF said, adding that “the incident is being investigated.”
Posts to social media identified the family members as Shadi Sharara and his three children, Celine, Hadi and Aseel. They were apparently in the car that was hit in the strike.
The motorcyclist was identified on social media as Mohammad Majed Marwa.
“What happened is a blatant crime against civilians and a message of intimidation aimed at our people returning to their villages in the south,” Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said on X.
“The guarantor states of the ceasefire agreement should exercise the strongest pressure on Israel to immediately stop its aggressions, withdraw from occupied Lebanese territory and free detainees,” he added.
Israel has frequently targeted Hezbollah positions and operatives in southern Lebanon since a US-brokered truce between Lebanon and Israel took effect in November, following more than a year of conflict sparked by the war in Gaza. Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israel has the right to act against threats.
On Saturday, the IDF carried out an airstrike in the Khardali area of southern Lebanon, saying it killed a Hezbollah operative who was carrying out surveillance on Israeli troops.
On Friday, two Hezbollah operatives were killed in Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon, the military said.
One strike carried out near the town of Ansar killed Amar Qasibani, who the military said commanded Hezbollah’s forces in the nearby village of Mazraat Sinay. The second strike outside a hospital in the town of Tebnine killed Hussein Ramadan, who the IDF identified as a member of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force.
“Both terrorists were engaged in the efforts to restore the organization’s terror infrastructure,” the military said.
Separately on Friday, the Israeli Navy struck a vessel off the coast of southern Lebanon’s Naqoura. The IDF said the vessel was being used by Hezbollah for surveillance on Israeli forces.
On Thursday, the Israeli military said it had struck arms depots belonging to Hezbollah in several areas of southern Lebanon.
In the face of heavy US pressure and fears of expanded Israeli strikes, the Lebanese government is seeking to disarm Hezbollah. Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi has said the army will complete the disarmament of the Iran-backed group in the border area by the end of 2025.
Hezbollah has said it would be a serious misstep even to discuss disarmament while Israel is continuing airstrikes on Lebanon and occupying territory in its south.
The November 2024 ceasefire agreement came after nearly 14 months of conflict sparked by Hezbollah’s unprovoked launching of near-daily attacks on Israeli border communities starting October 8, 2023 — a day after fellow Iran-backed group Hamas stormed southern Israel, sparking the Gaza war.
Since the ceasefire, the IDF has said it has killed over 300 Hezbollah operatives in strikes, hit hundreds of Hezbollah sites, and conducted over 1,000 raids and other small operations in southern Lebanon.