Israeli airstrikes hit seven vehicles in Lebanon on Wednesday, including three on the main highway just south of Beirut, killing 12 people, the Lebanese Health Ministry said. Among the dead were a woman and her two children, while the Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah infrastructure in several areas in southern Lebanon. Hours earlier, Israel told residents of six southern villages to evacuate, a reminder of who gets ordered off the land when the machinery of war decides to move.
Who Pays for the Decisions at the Top
The Health Ministry said the seven airstrikes hit vehicles, but it did not provide full details of the number of people in each vehicle. Two of the drone attacks hit a highway linking Beirut with the southern port city of Sidon, while a third struck the town of Saadiyat near the busy freeway, the state-run National News Agency said. The Health Ministry said those strikes killed eight people in total, including the mother and children. A fourth strike took place in the early afternoon near the northern entrance of Sidon, leaving one person dead and another wounded, the ministry said. It added that three other drone strikes on cars deeper in southern Lebanon killed three people.
An Associated Press photographer saw the bodies of three people killed in two of the strikes near the coastal towns of Barja and Jiyeh. The dead are the ones left behind by the language of “infrastructure” and “security,” while the vehicles, highways and towns become targets in a conflict managed from above.
The Ceasefire That Keeps Failing Ordinary People
In southern Lebanon, Israeli airstrikes were reported in various towns and villages while Hezbollah claimed that it launched additional attacks on Israel as both sides kept exchanging fire despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire on April 17. Hezbollah also has been using drones in its attacks on Israeli forces. The ceasefire exists on paper, but the violence continues to be enforced through airstrikes, rockets and drones, with civilians living under the consequences.
The United Nations has accused Hezbollah of drone strikes near its peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon, and Secretary-General António Guterres’ message to both sides is that they must observe the ceasefire and stop all attacks, U.N. deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said. The U.N. peacekeeping force deployed in southern Lebanon known as UNIFIL said Wednesday it was increasingly concerned about fighting between Hezbollah and Israeli soldiers near its positions, putting peacekeepers at risk, including with explosions of drones in and around U.N. bases. UNIFIL said that a presumed Hezbollah drone detonated inside its headquarters in the coastal town of Naqoura on Tuesday, following earlier presumed Hezbollah drone detonations on Monday and Tuesday. No one was injured, but some buildings were damaged.
Washington Talks, Same Old Hierarchy
Lebanon and Israel are scheduled to hold another round of direct talks in Washington on Thursday as the Trump administration pushes for a breakthrough between the two neighbors that have been in a state of war since Israel was created in 1948. The diplomatic stage is set far from the roads and towns where the dead are counted, with the powerful once again arranging the terms while ordinary people absorb the blast radius.
The latest Israel-Hezbollah war started on March 2, when the Lebanese militant group fired rockets into northern Israel two days after the United States and Israel attacked Iran. The Health Ministry said Wednesday that since the war began, 2,896 people have been killed and 8,824 wounded. Those numbers are the ledger of a conflict that keeps grinding through communities while states, armed groups and international institutions trade accusations, demands and ceasefire language over the heads of the people living through it.