Airstrikes in Lebanon and Gaza Kill Dozens as Tensions Escalate

Israeli forces carried out airstrikes in southern Lebanon and Gaza on Wednesday, killing scores of people and wounding others as tensions along the Israel-Lebanon border and inside Gaza rose once again. Officials on both sides reported civilian casualties, and authorities said several students were among the wounded after a drone strike hit a car near a passing school bus.

Strikes in southern Lebanon

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it targeted what it identified as Hezbollah weapons storage and infrastructure in several villages in southern Lebanon. After issuing warnings for civilians to move away from the areas, the military reported strikes in the villages of Shehour and Deir Kifa. There was no immediate independent confirmation of casualties from those attacks.

Earlier Wednesday, a drone strike in the village of Tiri killed one person and wounded 11 others, including students aboard a nearby school bus, Lebanese health officials and state media reported. The IDF later said the drone strike killed a Hezbollah operative.

Ein el-Hilweh strike and scene of destruction

A separate airstrike late Tuesday in the Ein el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon killed 13 people, the deadliest reported Israeli attack in Lebanon since last year’s cease-fire. Lebanese authorities limited journalists’ access to the site. Paramedics searched amid burned cars, shattered glass and other debris as residents and officials assessed the aftermath.

Israeli strikes in Gaza

Hospitals in Gaza reported that at least 21 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on Wednesday occurring on both sides of the cease-fire's so-called “yellow line,” which divides a border zone under Israeli control from an inland safe zone. Medical officials at multiple hospitals said they received bodies from Gaza City, Khan Younis and the Muwasi displacement camp; an additional strike in Shijaiyah, a Gaza City neighborhood outside the safe zone, killed one person.

The IDF said the Gaza strikes were responses to militants who opened fire on Israeli forces in Khan Younis and asserted it would continue to act against Hamas wherever it operates. Hamas denied that a sports playground hit in one strike was a training compound and condemned the attack.

Context and international response

These incidents come amid lingering tensions since the Oct. 8, 2023 escalation that followed Hamas’s attack on southern Israel and Hezbollah’s subsequent rocket fire. That conflict caused heavy loss of life and widespread destruction: more than 4,000 people were killed in Lebanon — including hundreds of civilians — and damage was estimated at roughly $11 billion, according to international assessments. In Israel, 127 people died, including about 80 soldiers.

On Monday, the U.N. Security Council approved a U.S.-backed plan that authorizes an international stabilization force for Gaza as part of efforts to secure the fragile cease-fire and outline the enclave’s future. Hamas criticized the plan, arguing that assigning roles inside Gaza — including disarmament tasks — would compromise the force’s neutrality and effectively make it a party to the conflict; it called instead for any international presence to be stationed solely on Gaza’s borders under U.N. supervision.

Humanitarian concerns

Health authorities in Gaza say Israeli strikes have decreased since the truce took effect on Oct. 10, though they have not stopped. Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its tallies, has reported roughly 280 deaths since the truce began. Both sides have accused each other of violating the cease-fire terms, which call for increased aid access to Gaza and the return of hostages.

The recent strikes underscore the fragile nature of the cease-fire and raise renewed concerns about civilian safety and humanitarian access across both Gaza and southern Lebanon.