BEIRUT — September 8, 2026. Israeli airstrikes across southern Lebanon killed at least twelve people, including two children, Lebanon’s health ministry said, in one of the deadliest days of bombardment since a relative lull earlier this summer. Lebanese and international reporting put Monday’s toll in the twelve-to-thirteen range, with women and children among the dead, as Israel said it was responding to Hezbollah explosive-drone attacks near the Ali al-Taher ridge—the highland Israel claimed to have brought under “operational control” on September 3.
The Israeli military said Hezbollah launched two explosive drones overnight toward troops operating near the ridge, a cluster of hills near Nabatieh where the group is believed to have built an extensive underground complex. In the days since Israel’s control announcement, Lebanese security officials told Reuters that strikes have intensified on towns north and west of the ridge where residents had returned after the June ceasefire. Sunday’s strikes alone killed at least eleven people in three towns near the ridge, according to an updated health ministry toll.
The political stakes travel far beyond southern Lebanon. Tehran has insisted that any lasting arrangement with Washington must address Israeli operations against Hezbollah. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and other officials have repeatedly warned that expanding the fight risks collapsing what remains of the June truce. Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz has taken the opposite line: troops will stay until Hezbollah is disarmed and Galilee communities are secure. Parallel reporting from the Institute for the Study of War notes continued Hezbollah drone activity and small-arms fire even after the ridge’s reported fall—evidence that “operational control” has not ended the duel.
Casualty accounting remains contested in the usual ways. Lebanon’s health ministry does not always distinguish civilians from fighters; Israel says it targets Hezbollah infrastructure and personnel. What is not contested is the trend line: more than 4,300 people have been killed in Lebanon since Hezbollah opened rocket fire on March 2, two days after U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran began, according to Lebanese figures that include more than 250 children. Tuesday’s toll adds another grim data point to a ceasefire that survives mostly on paper.
