Israel kills 18 in Lebanon, West Bank and Gaza

BEIRUT: Israeli strikes killed more than a dozen people in Lebanon and Gaza on Saturday, while an Israeli settler shot dead a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank, according to officials.

The widespread violence came a day after plans were announced for potential ceasefire talks between Lebanon, Israel and the United States.

Israeli strikes on a village near Sidon in south Lebanon on Saturday killed eight people and wounded nine others, five of them seriously, the Lebanese health ministry said.

Lebanon’s health ministry also said a total of 10 people were killed by Israeli strikes in the country’s south on Saturday, with state media reporting Israeli raids on more than a dozen locations. Earlier in the day, officials said strikes killed 10 people in the Nabatiyeh district.

The ministry said the dead included a member of the Lebanese civil defence and two paramedics from the Islamic Health Committee, decrying Israel’s “systematic” targeting of emergency workers.

Hezbollah slams planned negotiations with Israel as ‘blatant violation’ of pact

In the coastal city of Sidon, hundreds of people attended a funeral procession for 13 State Security personnel who were killed the day before in Israeli strikes in Nabatiyeh. Loved ones grasped coffins draped in the Lebanese flag while others wept.

The widow of one of those killed screamed, “Who will bring my husband back? Who will give my children their father back?”

Authorities say more than 1,950 people have been killed in Lebanon since the war erupted. The Israeli military said Saturday it had struck more than 200 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon within the past 24 hours, among them rocket launchers.

Strikes in Gaza

Two Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza on Saturday, killing at least seven people and injuring several others, officials from Gaza’s health ministry said.

An airstrike on a police checkpoint in the Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip early on Saturday killed at least six people, while a second airstrike in Beit Lahiya killed at least one, officials said. It was not immediately clear how many of those killed in the first strike were police members.

The Israeli military said the strike in Bureij was carried out after members of Hamas approached the yellow line demarcating the half of Gaza occupied by Israel. It did not immediately comment on the strike in Beit Lahiya.

Israel and Hamas reached a US-brokered deal last October that was meant to halt violence in the Palestinian territory. Since then, Israeli attacks have killed at least 700 people in Gaza, according to health officials there.

West Bank killing

The Palestinian health ministry said Israeli settlers shot dead a Palestinian man in the West Bank on Saturday. Ali Majed Hamadneh, 23, died after settlers opened fire during a raid on the village of Deir Jarir, northeast of Ramallah, the ministry said.

“He was brought to the Palestine Medical Complex in a critical condition” and later succumbed to his wounds, the ministry said on Telegram.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa also reported the incident. “Armed colonists, under the protection of Israeli forces, attacked Deir Jarir from its western entrance and opened fire toward residents in the area,” Wafa reported.

There was no immediate response from the Israeli police or military.

Violence in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, has risen sharply since the Oct 7, 2023, United Nations have said there has also been a spike in deadly attacks by Israeli settlers since the start of a conflict with Iran on Feb 28.

Excluding east Jerusalem, more than 500,000 Israelis now live in West Bank settlements that are illegal under international law. Settlement expansion has accelerated significantly under the current coalition government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Hezbollah slams planned talks

Hezbollah on Saturday renewed its rejection of direct negotiations with Israel, a day after the Lebanese presidency announced a trilateral meeting.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun’s office said Friday that officials from his country, Israel and the United States would meet next week in Washington “to discuss declaring a ceasefire and the start date for negotiations between Lebanon and Israel under US auspices”.

Hundreds gathered near the government headquarters in central Beirut on Saturday to protest the talks, some waving Hezbollah’s yellow flags or the Iranian standard.

“Whoever wants peace with Israel is not Lebanese,” said demonstrator Ruqaya Msheik, adding, “Those who shake hands with the enemy… are Zionists.”

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said the decision to hold direct talks was “a blatant violation of the (national) pact, the constitution and Lebanese laws.” The government “has failed to protect its people and cannot be trusted to safeguard national sovereignty,” he added in a statement.

An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Akbar Velayati, warned Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam that ignoring Hezbollah “will expose Lebanon to irreparable security risks”.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2026



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