At least twelve people were killed in Israeli air strikes near Nabatieh, a city in southern Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health — the latest in a series of attacks that have continued since a ceasefire agreement came into force last month. On Wednesday, Israel also struck the southern suburbs of Beirut for the first time since the truce was declared, killing a Hezbollah commander. Israel has justified the strikes as responses to violations of the ceasefire by Hezbollah, the pro-Iranian militant movement that controls much of southern Lebanon.
On the ground, the human cost of the continuing military activity is stark. In Hasbaya, a town of around 10,000 people — predominantly Druze — situated near what Israel has designated as a buffer zone along Lebanon's southern border, a public school is sheltering 160 displaced people from surrounding villages. Among them is Rihan Ahmad el-Ali, a 35-year-old originally from Khiam, who fled with her husband and four children after their home was destroyed. "Before, we managed financially. We didn't need help. But today we have nothing," she said. Her daughter, she added, now refuses to go to school because the family is living in one. "When we go to sleep, we wonder if there will be a tomorrow."
Israel has continued issuing daily evacuation orders across southern Lebanon and, according to observers, has been systematically razing villages in a strip of territory three to ten kilometres wide that it intends to occupy — a pattern experts compare to tactics used during the war in Gaza. Mirna Abou Dehen, a teacher coordinating the reception of displaced people in Hasbaya, described the atmosphere of persistent dread. "Every time I turn on my phone and see alerts and warnings, I ask myself when Hasbaya will be on the list. It is an indescribable fear. We are never far from danger."
Despite the ongoing violence, diplomatic efforts are moving forward. Representatives from Lebanon and Israel are scheduled to meet in Washington on 14 and 15 May to hold further peace talks. The ceasefire, brokered with US involvement, remains technically in force, but the daily reality for hundreds of thousands of displaced Lebanese suggests the truce is, as yet, largely theoretical.
Why this matters: Lebanon's south has been devastated by successive cycles of conflict, and the displacement of civilian populations from border communities risks becoming entrenched if a durable political agreement is not reached. The Washington talks represent a rare diplomatic opening, but the continuation of strikes — and Hezbollah's reported violations — underlines how fragile that opening remains.