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Lebanon Vows to Defend Itself ‘by Any Means’ after Israeli Drone Attack

Lebanon's Higher Defense Council meets at the Beiteddine palace. (NNA)
Lebanon's Higher Defense Council meets at the Beiteddine palace. (NNA)
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Lebanon Vows to Defend Itself ‘by Any Means’ after Israeli Drone Attack

Lebanon's Higher Defense Council meets at the Beiteddine palace. (NNA)
Lebanon's Higher Defense Council meets at the Beiteddine palace. (NNA)

Lebanon vowed on Tuesday that it will defend itself "by any means" after an Israeli drone attack struck the Beirut stronghold of the Hezbollah party.

Lebanon's Higher Defense Council, a government body in charge of defense policy, met to discuss Sunday's attack on southern Beirut.

"The Council affirms the right of the Lebanese to defend themselves by any means against any aggression," it said in a statement after the meeting that was chaired by President Michel Aoun.

Aoun had denounced the attack as a "declaration of war" and Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah vowed retaliation.

During Tuesday's meeting, Prime Minister Saad Hariri said the attack -- the first of its kind since a 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel -- posed a threat to regional stability.

Israel used the attack, for which the Jewish state has not claimed responsibility, "to change the rules of engagement," he said.

But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday his country was ready to use "all means necessary" to defend itself against Iranian threats "on several fronts".

Also on Tuesday, Hariri telephoned Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to discuss the weekend’s developments. He said Lebanon was counting on Russia to avert more escalation.

He added that the Israeli attack violates United Nations Security Council resolution 1701 that helped end the 2006 war.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah on Tuesday said the drone attack involved two drones -- one which exploded and the other that crashed without exploding because of a technical failure.

Nasrallah on Sunday had said that an armed drone had "hit a specific area," without elaborating.

The Beirut drone attack came after Israel on Saturday launched strikes in neighboring Syria to prevent what it said was an Iranian attack on the Jewish state.

Nasrallah on Sunday said two Hezbollah members were among those killed in the strikes.

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Arab World

Iran Missile Fire Kills 3 Palestinians in West Bank, Foreign Worker in Israel

Iranian missiles fly towards Israel, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, as seen from Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, March 18, 2026. REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma
Iranian missiles fly towards Israel, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, as seen from Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, March 18, 2026. REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma
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Iran Missile Fire Kills 3 Palestinians in West Bank, Foreign Worker in Israel

Iranian missiles fly towards Israel, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, as seen from Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, March 18, 2026. REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma
Iranian missiles fly towards Israel, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, as seen from Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, March 18, 2026. REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma

Iranian missile attacks have killed three Palestinian women in the occupied West Bank and a foreign worker in central Israel, medics said Thursday.

Falling shrapnel struck a hair salon in the West Bank town of Beit Awa near Hebron late Wednesday, killing the three women, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society, marking the first Palestinian deaths from Iranian attacks in the ongoing Middle East war.

The victims include 17-year-old Mays Ghazi Masalmeh, according to the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa.

The Red Crescent said at least eight others were wounded, including one woman in critical condition.

Wafa reported that the salon had been set up in a metal caravan next to a house.

AFP images showed civil defense workers inside the caravan, whose roof appeared to be punctured by the falling munition. A rug and bed sheets were covered in blood.

The news agency said missile fragments landed in multiple locations across the West Bank, including within the city of Hebron, after Israel's military reported another round of Iranian missile launches.

A short while later, Israeli medics said Iranian missile fire had killed a man in central Israel, bringing the death toll in Israel from attacks during the ongoing war to 15.

Israel's Magen David Adom medical emergency service described the victim as a "foreign worker", with Israeli media reports saying he was a Thai national working in agriculture.

Thailand's foreign ministry confirmed on Thursday the death of a Thai agricultural worker, citing information from Israeli officials.

He was killed in Moshav Adanim, a town about 20 kilometers (12 miles) northeast of Tel Aviv and less than eight kilometers from the West Bank, according to the Israeli medical service.

A statement from Magen David Adom quoted its medic Idan Shina as saying "metal shrapnel was scattered across the scene", where the man was found dead with "severe shrapnel injuries".

The Israeli military earlier said it had identified a round of missile fire from Iran, which it was "operating to intercept".

Since that attack, the military reported several more waves of Iranian attacks, triggering air raid alerts across parts of central and northern Israel as well as in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had launched missiles and drones at targets across Israel, according to a statement carried by Iranian news agencies Fars and ISNA.

Israeli media said some of the overnight barrages saw the use of cluster munitions, which explode mid-air and scatter bomblets across a wide area.

Iran and Israel have previously accused each other of using cluster bombs.

Arab World

Israel Ramps up Qassam Killings in Gaza for Fourth Consecutive Day

Palestinian policemen inspect a vehicle in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, March 16, 2026. (Reuters)
Palestinian policemen inspect a vehicle in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, March 16, 2026. (Reuters)
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Israel Ramps up Qassam Killings in Gaza for Fourth Consecutive Day

Palestinian policemen inspect a vehicle in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, March 16, 2026. (Reuters)
Palestinian policemen inspect a vehicle in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, March 16, 2026. (Reuters)

Israel has stepped up targeted killings of fighters in Gaza for a fourth day in a row, zeroing in on field commanders in the military wings of Palestinian factions, particularly the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, across the north and south of the enclave.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military used a suicide drone to strike a tent in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis, killing Mohammed Abu Shahla, a senior field commander in the Khan Younis brigade and its intelligence chief.

A field source told Asharq Al-Awsat that Abu Shahla was “the third-ranking figure in the eastern Khan Younis area” and a key figure within the Qassam Brigades due to his military and security experience.

Several civilians were wounded in the strike.

A day earlier, an Israeli drone hit a vehicle carrying Yahya Abu Labda, a Qassam Brigades field commander responsible for logistics and supply in Khan Younis. He was killed along with two others nearby.

Field sources said Abu Labda had also been active in humanitarian work, overseeing projects to establish camps for displaced people and deliver aid. He had received substantial donations from abroad, “which may have contributed to Israel accelerating his targeting,” the sources said.

On Monday, an Israeli drone strike killed Younis Alyan, a field commander in the northern brigade of the Qassam Brigades, firing a single missile that killed him instantly.

The Israeli military said Alyan was in charge of the brigade’s naval force and had led a series of attacks.

Sources within the Qassam Brigades told Asharq Al-Awsat that Alyan had recently been tasked with reorganizing the group’s structure in western Jabalia and had held several roles during and before the war.

On Sunday, an Israeli strike killed seven Hamas police members in a vehicle in the Zawayda area in central Gaza. It later emerged that one of them, Iyad Abu Youssef, was a Qassam Brigades field commander who also served as a Hamas police officer.

According to an Asharq Al-Awsat tally, at least seven field commanders, including company commanders and deputy battalion commanders, have been killed in the past two weeks, among them Alyan, Abu Labda, and Abu Shahla, along with other fighters.

The escalation in Gaza coincided with Israeli killings of two Hamas operatives in Lebanon. One, Wissam Taha, was killed in Sidon and described by the Israeli military as part of a financial network supporting the group. The other, Walid Deeb, was a Hamas official in Lebanon’s refugee camps.

Armed groups backed by Israel have mirrored the campaign. On Tuesday, gunmen tried to kill a Qassam Brigades operative in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City.

Two assailants opened fire inside a supermarket using a silenced weapon, seriously wounding him before fleeing toward Israeli-controlled areas.

Sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that members of these groups had received advanced training at Israeli military sites and now possess weapons and drones, and are being trained to use them against Hamas operatives.

The Hamas-run government media office in Gaza said it had recorded 2,073 violations of a ceasefire that took effect on Oct. 10. These included 750 shooting incidents, 87 incursions, 973 bombardments and 263 demolitions of homes and buildings.

The violations have killed more than 677 people, including 305 children and women, wounded 1,813 and led to 50 arrests.

Arab World

Israel Army Chief Says West Bank Settler Attacks ‘Ethically Unacceptable’

New settlements near Abu Falah village, near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, March 11, 2026. (Reuters)
New settlements near Abu Falah village, near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, March 11, 2026. (Reuters)
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Israel Army Chief Says West Bank Settler Attacks ‘Ethically Unacceptable’

New settlements near Abu Falah village, near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, March 11, 2026. (Reuters)
New settlements near Abu Falah village, near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, March 11, 2026. (Reuters)

Israel's military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir on Wednesday criticized a recent rise in settler attacks in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, calling the violence against troops and civilians "morally and ethically unacceptable".

At least six Palestinians have been killed in attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank since the start of March, according to an AFP tally.

"Recently there has been an increase in nationalist crime incidents, some of which are directed against our troops and toward civilian populations," Zamir said, referring to Palestinians living in the territory, as he visited the Central Command.

"It is unacceptable that during a multi-front war the Israeli army is forced to confront a threatening minority from within," he said, adding that the attackers "do not represent the wider population."

"I call on all authorities in the country to act against this phenomenon and stop it before it is too late," he said, in a statement issued by the military.

"Anyone who believes these actions contribute to security is mistaken -- they are morally and ethically unacceptable and cause extraordinary strategic damage to the efforts of the army," he said.

Violence in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, has risen sharply since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war. It has continued despite the ceasefire and spiked since the start of the war against Iran.

Alongside roughly three million Palestinians, more than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements and outposts in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law.

While most Israeli settlers do not engage in violence, a small but militant fringe has been linked to attacks on Palestinians.

According to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry figures, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 1,050 Palestinians -- many of them gunmen, but also scores of civilians -- in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war.

Official Israeli figures say that 45 Israelis, including soldiers and civilians, have also been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations.

The current Israeli government, considered one of the most right-wing in the country's history, has fast-tracked settlement expansion and recognized some outposts.