BEIRUT — A fragile, newly brokered truce was violently disrupted as a wave of fresh Israeli airstrikes pounded southern Lebanon and the Western Bekaa region, leaving at least seven people dead and multiple others wounded. The fatal flare-up comes less than 48 hours after a United States-backed ceasefire took effect, aiming to halt months of escalating regional conflict.
According to a statement released by the Emergency Operations Center of Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health, five individuals—including a woman and a child—were killed in a direct Israeli raid on the town of Sohmor, located in the Western Bekaa district. Separately, two Palestinian nationals were killed in a concurrent strike targeting the Rashidieh refugee camp in the coastal district of Tyre, bringing the immediate toll of the renewed hostilities to seven.
The strikes severely undermine an interim agreement brokered by international mediators that had called for a total cessation of hostilities across all fronts. The calm lasted barely a day before localized skirmishes erupted into a broader aerial campaign.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) defended the military action, stating that their warplanes and drones targeted Hezbollah assets in defensive retaliation. According to Israeli military officials, the operation was triggered after Hezbollah allegedly launched more than 50 projectiles overnight at Israeli troops stationed within the established security buffer zone in southern Lebanon, resulting in the deaths of five Israeli soldiers over a 48-hour window.
Hezbollah strongly rejected the claim, accusing Israel of committing hundreds of proactive ceasefire violations by advancing its forces onto strategic hills. The group warned that continued aggression "will not pass without a response" and urged global powers, particularly Washington, to immediately pressure Israel into halting its aerial campaign.
The Lebanon National News Agency (NNA) reported widespread destruction across the Bekaa Valley and southern districts, where residential structures were flattened and rescue crews were forced to work under constant threat of secondary strikes. Local emergency responders noted that the continuous shelling has deeply complicated efforts to transport the wounded to nearby medical facilities.
The resumption of violence has ignited panic among high-level diplomats who were actively attempting to solidify a permanent peace framework. International observers fear that the rapid collapse of the truce could completely derail concurrent diplomatic talks and plunge the region back into a devastating all-out war.
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