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Lebanon Says 12 Killed in Strikes as Israel Vows to 'Remove Threats'

Excavators operate as rescuers search for survivors following an Israeli airstrike targeting a building in the village of Kfar Rumman, southern Lebanon, 07 September 2026 EPA/WAEL HAMZEH
Excavators operate as rescuers search for survivors following an Israeli airstrike targeting a building in the village of Kfar Rumman, southern Lebanon, 07 September 2026 EPA/WAEL HAMZEH
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Lebanon Says 12 Killed in Strikes as Israel Vows to 'Remove Threats'

Excavators operate as rescuers search for survivors following an Israeli airstrike targeting a building in the village of Kfar Rumman, southern Lebanon, 07 September 2026 EPA/WAEL HAMZEH
Excavators operate as rescuers search for survivors following an Israeli airstrike targeting a building in the village of Kfar Rumman, southern Lebanon, 07 September 2026 EPA/WAEL HAMZEH

Israel conducted a wave of airstrikes in south Lebanon, killing 12 people including women and children according to the Lebanese health ministry on Monday, in an intensification of violence after a weeks-long lull.

Israel's military vowed to continue targeting Hezbollah after the overnight strikes. Eleven people, including two children and four women, died in one attack on a building in Kfar Rumman that killed 11 people, the ministry said.

A separate attack in the same town killed a rescuer and wounded another, the ministry said. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency had previously reported two wounded rescuers.

The strikes, which came despite a ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, follow separate raids a day earlier that left 11 dead.

Israel has been intensifying strikes in the southern Nabatieh area after saying on Thursday that it had seized the strategic Ali al-Taher ridge from Hezbollah, a claim the Iran-backed group has not commented on.

The Israeli military in a statement said it had struck Hezbollah "infrastructure sites" across southern Lebanon after the launch of two explosive drones towards its troops, as well as "several terrorists" it said were transferring weapons.

The army said it "will continue to operate to remove threats while remaining committed to the ceasefire agreement".

Fighting in Lebanon, which erupted in March after Hezbollah targeted Israel in support of Iran, had decreased since a June memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran on the wider Middle East war and an Israel-Lebanon framework agreement later that month.

On Monday, Israel's foreign ministry accused Hezbollah of "repeated drone attacks" and "attempting to rebuild its military capabilities in southern Lebanon".

The ministry said Hezbollah had violated the ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and Israel that includes disarmament of the group.

The rescuer who was killed was just 18 years old, according to his civil defense organization, which is affiliated with the Amal movement, a political ally of Hezbollah.

An AFP photographer saw the building that was hit in Kfar Rumman had been destroyed, with school books and remnants of furniture strewn across the rubble.

Rescue teams were searching the debris on Monday morning for other victims.

Villagers had returned home following the June truce after being displaced by the war.

"Since we returned here, we've lived in fear," Fouad Chakaron told AFP.

He insisted the targeted building was inhabited by "peaceful people with no connection to anyone".

Neighbours fled after the strike, which also damaged nearby buildings, AFP's photographer said. The NNA later reported additional strikes on the Nabatieh area.

- 'I couldn't believe it' -

Israel issued no warning to Kfar Rumman before the strikes but released an evacuation order ahead of a separate attack in nearby Deir Zahrani.

The Israeli military said in an Arabic-language message that it was targeting a "Hezbollah terrorist facility", warning that those who remained in the area were at risk.

"They called me at 2 am and told me to get out of the house because it is being targeted," resident Abbas Toufeili told AFP, referring to the Israeli army.

"I said that's impossible, why is my house being targeted? There's nothing in it. I couldn't believe it."

He said he took his wife, children and elderly mother outside in their pyjamas and they stood on the street watching their house be destroyed.

On Sunday, Israeli strikes killed seven people. Attacks on Friday killed four.

The Israeli army has said it is responding to Hezbollah's launch of two drones towards its soldiers inside Lebanon, but did not specify whether any of its troops were wounded.

Hezbollah has not claimed any attack since June 20.

Israeli airstrikes and a ground invasion of Lebanon have killed more than 4,300 people since March, Beirut says.

Israeli forces are operating inside a self-declared "security zone" around 10 kilometres (six miles) deep inside Lebanon along the border.

On Sunday, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun urged Washington and the international community to help stop Israeli attacks.

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Arab World

An Israeli Strike on a Hospital Highlights the Devastation to Gaza’s Healthcare System

A medical staff member salvages medical equipment at Nasser Hospital after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike overnight in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP)
A medical staff member salvages medical equipment at Nasser Hospital after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike overnight in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP)
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An Israeli Strike on a Hospital Highlights the Devastation to Gaza’s Healthcare System

A medical staff member salvages medical equipment at Nasser Hospital after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike overnight in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP)
A medical staff member salvages medical equipment at Nasser Hospital after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike overnight in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP)

A deadly airstrike on the biggest hospital in the southern Gaza Strip highlighted the devastation that Israel's campaign has wreaked on the Palestinian territory's healthcare system over the past three years.

The strike that hit Nasser Hospital's surgical wing killed six people, including a surgeon and a 13-year-old boy, and heavily damaged operating rooms and patient wards. The Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas commander using the hospital as a base, though it did not provide evidence for the claim.

Israel has carried out near daily strikes in Gaza despite a ceasefire agreement with Hamas that took effect in October 2025. Israel says it is targeting fighters. Israel launched its campaign in Gaza in retaliation for Hamas' deadly October 2023 attack on southern Israel.

Direct attacks on hospitals have become rarer during the truce. But Thursday's strike underscored how Gaza's health system is still struggling to recover.

Here is a look at Israel's attacks on hospitals, its accusations against Hamas and the impact on Gaza's healthcare system.

Israel has attacked Gaza hospitals frequently in the war

The Israeli military besieged multiple hospitals around Gaza throughout the war, often surrounding them for weeks and battering them with strikes and gunfire while patients and staff were trapped inside and supplies ran out. Some sieges ended with troops storming hospitals, often leaving medical equipment destroyed, or with staff and patients forced to evacuate. Troops detained hundreds of healthcare workers.

Two major raids left Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, the territory’s largest, in ruins.

Aside from the sieges, hospitals and other medical facilities have frequently come under Israeli fire or been hit by airstrikes that the military says target Hamas fighters. During some of the worst months, as few as 14 of Gaza's 36 prewar hospitals were functioning, and shortages of medicine meant patients writhed in pain without painkillers and deadly infections ran rampant.

The World Health Organization says it has documented more than 1,050 attacks on health facilities in Gaza, causing more than 1,000 deaths. The UN says more than 1,700 medical personnel were killed in the war, including in strikes away from medical facilities. At least six medical staffers from Gaza, including three prominent doctors, have died in Israeli prisons, according to rights groups that have documented abuses in custody.

Israeli forces have struck Nasser Hospital repeatedly. In 2025, the military killed 22 people when it shelled a vantage point used by reporters on the hospital roof, then hit rescue workers and journalists rushing to help the wounded. Among those killed were five journalists, including Mariam Dagga, who was working with The Associated Press.

While attacks during the ceasefire have waned, some strikes in recent months have damaged medical facilities, according to the UN.

Israel accuses Hamas of using the facilities for military purposes

Israel has sought to justify the assaults by accusing Hamas of using the hospitals as command-and-control centers, though it has provided limited evidence. Palestinian and hospital officials have denied these claims.

Hamas security men have sometimes been seen in hospitals, controlling access to certain areas.

The international medical aid group Doctors Without Borders suspended most operations at Nasser Hospital in January because of the presence of masked armed men and situations in which patients were arrested or intimidated. It resumed operations a few months later, citing “concrete improvements” after talks with Gaza authorities, including restrictions on entry of armed individuals.

In the case of Nasser Hospital, the Israeli military said Thursday that it was targeting Muhammad Abu Ismail, who it said headed Hamas’ Khan Younis Brigade and had been using the facility as a headquarters for planning attacks.

It did not explain why the hospital’s surgical unit was targeted. The strike smashed through a patient recovery area and wrecked operating rooms and a rest area for doctors.

The military did not say whether it had killed Abu Ismail. He was not on the hospital’s list of people killed.

International law gives protections to hospitals Hospitals are protected under international humanitarian law and attacking them is a war crime.

Medical facilities can lose that protected status if they are used for military purposes “to commit acts harmful to the enemy.” But the Geneva Conventions, passed in 1949, say there must be a warning with a reasonable period of time before any attack, and that the attack must be proportional to the military threat and take care to avoid civilian casualties.

The Israeli military said it had held “warning conversations” with Gaza health officials before Thursday's strike regarding militant use of hospitals. It said it made clear that “if the activity was not halted, it would act to remove the threats posed by it.”

Medical organizations and rights groups also have criticized Israel’s restrictions on medical aid and equipment entering Gaza as a violation of international law. The Israeli military says it allows aid to enter Gaza but bars some “dual use” items it asserts could be used for military purposes.

Gaza's healthcare system is struggling to recover

Israel’s attacks, along with restrictions on aid, have left Gaza’s healthcare system in ruins. Twenty of Gaza’s 36 pre-war hospitals are functioning, though none is fully operational.

During much of the war, some of those hospitals offered little beyond first aid even as they dealt with scores of wounded people. They struggled to keep lights and equipment functioning because of fuel shortages.

The ceasefire deal has given aid groups and the Health Ministry breathing room to get some services functioning again. But the sector continues to suffer from Israel’s restrictions on entry or slow approvals for medicines, supplies and equipment. The World Health Organization said in a Sept. 30 report that 47% of essential medicines were out of stock and that shortages in lab supplies, medical equipment, spare parts and fuel hampered health work.

At the same time, hospitals and clinics struggle to treat a population where almost everyone has lost their homes and more than 1.6 million live in tents or other ramshackle shelters. Communicable diseases and infections are widespread, and thousands have life-changing wounds from the war.

Arab World

Sudan: Haroun’s Lawyers Doubt He Will Be Turned over to ICC

Ahmed Haroun, governor of Sudan's embattled state of South Kordofan, speaks to reporters in Khartoum on July 26, 2011. (AFP)
Ahmed Haroun, governor of Sudan's embattled state of South Kordofan, speaks to reporters in Khartoum on July 26, 2011. (AFP)
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Sudan: Haroun’s Lawyers Doubt He Will Be Turned over to ICC

Ahmed Haroun, governor of Sudan's embattled state of South Kordofan, speaks to reporters in Khartoum on July 26, 2011. (AFP)
Ahmed Haroun, governor of Sudan's embattled state of South Kordofan, speaks to reporters in Khartoum on July 26, 2011. (AFP)

The arrest of Ahmed Haroun, former head of the ruling National Congress Party under former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, has reignited debate over the fate of former regime leaders wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), as well as the military establishment's relationship with the Islamist movement.

Awatif al-Jaali, a member of Haroun’s defense team, said members of the team doubt his detention is linked to arrangements to hand him over to the ICC, which seeks him on charges of "committing war crimes in the Darfur region during al-Bashir's rule."

Al-Jaali told Asharq Al-Awsat that her client was arrested while traveling from the eastern Sudanese city of Kassala to the capital, Khartoum, by an unidentified security agency. She confirmed that the defense team has no information regarding his place of detention or the circumstances surrounding his arrest.

The defense team intends to submit a request to judicial authorities to allow its lawyers to meet with their client, ascertain the reasons for his arrest, and identify the authority that issued the order before determining the next legal steps, she said.

The defense team comprises lawyers from both inside and outside Sudan, she revealed.

Moreover, Al-Jaali described the arrest as "illegal," saying that it "contradicts rights guaranteed by the constitution and the law, foremost among them freedom of expression of political and ideological views."

Haroun's arrest came days after he appeared in a televised interview in which he revisited the topic of his party's relationship with the military establishment and declared his support for army commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, adding that the latter had been influenced by what he described as media hype and international pressure against Islamists.

In an interview with Reuters last year, Haroun said he expected that the army would remain in power after the war ends, stressing the need to reach a formula defining its role in political life.

He also said that his party seeks to return to governing the country following a post-war transitional phase.

His recent statements drew criticism from anti-war political and civil forces, which argued that allowing former regime leaders to move freely inside the country, despite facing charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, reflects their continued political and security influence.

Political forces said that Haroun's arrest may be an attempt to contain the fallout from his media appearance and absorb the domestic and international pressure and criticism that followed, particularly amid growing debate over the nature of the relationship between the army and Islamists, and the extent to which military decision-making is independent of its influence.

Arab World

Sweida Activist Speaks of Preparations to Drag Governorate into Confrontation with Syrian Security

Gunmen loyal to al-Hijri on patrol in Sweida. (AFP file)
Gunmen loyal to al-Hijri on patrol in Sweida. (AFP file)
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Sweida Activist Speaks of Preparations to Drag Governorate into Confrontation with Syrian Security

Gunmen loyal to al-Hijri on patrol in Sweida. (AFP file)
Gunmen loyal to al-Hijri on patrol in Sweida. (AFP file)

An activist leader in Syria's Druze-majority Sweida governorate has warned of ongoing attempts by the so-called "National Guard" to "drag the governorate into a new, wide-scale confrontation" with the government's Internal Security Forces, "under the direction of an Israeli politician who is a former Knesset member, and Syrian Druze politicians residing abroad."
An informed source inside Sweida city did not rule out the claim, noting that "these actors are pushing for this in an attempt to thwart the formation of an Israeli government led by Gadi Eisenkot."
Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, the activist, who opposes the policies of Sheikh al-Aql Hikmat al-Hijri and his "National Guard," said: "Currently, there are those trying to sow discord anew and create unrest with the villages where the (government) Internal Security Forces are deployed."
"After every period of calm and the emergence of a possibility to initiate dialogue, someone seeks to escalate the situation again," he said.
A cautious calm has held along the governorate's frontlines for roughly three weeks between Internal Security Forces and the "National Guard." Al-Hijri has also refrained from making any statements that might stoke tensions.
The source said the plot to reignite tensions in the governorate also involves "striking the sites where the (National Guard) holds detainees, in order to cover up for prisoners who were handed over in exchange for sums of money."
He believed the plan to rekindle tensions in the governorate serves multiple purposes, including "undermining the positive role Jordan is playing toward the new Syria and efforts to resolve the Sweida crisis," as well as causing "a certain embarrassment" to Israeli Prime Minister-designate Eisenkot.
The "National Guard," which controls wide swaths of the governorate, including Sweida city, "possesses the capabilities to reignite tensions" with the Internal Security Forces, "especially as it works relentlessly to fuel resentment among residents against the government," he added.
He warned: "Once the battle begins, every civilian will be forced to carry arms," stressing the need to "deprive them of the opportunity to widen the rift and ease tensions until we reach a national solution."
A source residing in Sweida city told Asharq Al-Awsat: "Instruments of the (Likud) party are pushing to drag the governorate into a confrontation with Syrian security, in order to find a pretext for Israel to intervene against the Syrian state under the guise of protecting the Druze."
Sweida Governor Mustafa al-Bakour had previously extended several invitations to residents for dialogue to resolve the governorate's crisis, which has persisted since the July 2025 unrest. His calls went unanswered.
Several sources in Sweida said this is due to "the policy of repression and treason accusations prevailing in the areas under the influence of al-Hijri and the National Guard, who reject dialogue with the government, demand the right to self-determination, and sought - with the support of outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - to separate the governorate from Syria and establish what is called the (State of Bashan)" there.