BEIRUT: An Israeli drone strike killed five people, including three children, in the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil on Sunday, Lebanon’s health ministry said.

Lebanon’s state news agency said the strike hit a motorbike and a vehicle, wounding two others.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said in a statement that a father and his three children were among the dead, with the mother wounded. He said they held US citizenship.

“What happened is a blatant crime against civilians and a message of intimidation aimed at our people returning to their villages in the south,” Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said on X.

Lebanon is under pressure from the United States, Saudi Arabia and Hezbollah’s domestic rivals to disarm the alleged Iranian-backed group.

Hezbollah has said it would be a serious misstep even to discuss disarmament while Israel is continuing airstrikes on Lebanon and occupying swaths of territory in its south.

The state-run National News Agency reported that the strike, near Bint Jbeil, had targeted a motorcycle. Israel launches frequent strikes inside Lebanon, saying it is targeting Hezbollah, despite a November ceasefire meant to end more than a year of hostilities between them.

Posting on X, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam denounced the strikes as a “deliberate crime against civilians”.

“The guarantor states of the ceasefire agreement should exercise the strongest pressure on Israel to immediately stop its aggressions, withdraw from occupied Lebanese territory and free detainees,” he said.

The November ceasefire is overseen by a committee including the United States and France, as well as Lebanon and Israel. Israel has increased the number and frequency of its strikes in Lebanon this week.

On Thursday, the Israeli military said it had struck arms depots belonging to Hezbollah in several areas of southern Lebanon.

In the face of heavy US pressure and fears of expanded Israeli strikes, the Lebanese government is seeking to disarm Hezbollah. Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi has said the army will complete the disarmament of the Iran-backed group in the border area within three months. The army said Thursday’s strikes took Israeli violations of the ceasefire to 4,500 and warned they risked slowing down Hezbollah’s disarmament.

Published in Dawn, September 22nd, 2025