- ARAB NEWS
- 18 Aug 2026
Since 1975
JERUSALEM/DUBAI: Israeli airstrikes and bombardments killed at least 47 people and wounded 97 others in Lebanon on Friday, according to the latest updated toll from the Lebanese health ministry.
The dead included at least seven women and two children and the figures were released as a new ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah was due to start.
Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire, which began at 4 p.m. local time on Friday, a senior US official told Reuters, after hostilities between them had escalated sharply overnight.
“Hezbollah and Israel have agreed to a ceasefire,” the US official said, adding that negotiators for the US and Qataris worked out the deal with help from Iran. “We understand that after the exchange of fire earlier today, Israel and Hezbollah are now in a ceasefire.”
President Joseph Aoun on Friday condemned the ongoing Israeli escalation of attacks in Lebanon, but said the military attacks would not deter effort to reach a comprehensive ceasefire as quickly as possible.
“What we are witnessing today in the South and the Bekaa Valley in terms of the expansion of Israeli attacks and more killing and destruction constitutes a dangerous and condemned escalation, especially since it has affected dozens of innocents, including women and children, and practically targets all ongoing efforts to consolidate the ceasefire and end the war, particularly after the recent developments that occurred between the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the Lebanese presidency posted on social media.
“However, this will not deter efforts to achieve a comprehensive ceasefire as quickly as possible, and this is what I instructed the Lebanese negotiating delegation to pursue in the next round in Washington.”
Aoun added: “There can be no leniency on this matter, because a comprehensive ceasefire is the gateway to addressing other issues, the most important of which are the Israeli withdrawal, the deployment of the army, and the return of the prisoners.”
Israel’s military said Friday that it had struck more than 80 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon and killed dozens of its members in response to what it described as ceasefire violations.
“Overnight, the IDF (military) struck more than 80 command centers, terrorists, launch positions, and additional terrorist infrastructure sites in the area of Nabatieh and additional areas in southern Lebanon, within the Security Zone and beyond it,” an army statement said.
“Furthermore, during the strikes, dozens of Hezbollah terrorists operating in the command centers were eliminated.”
Fighting flared in Lebanon on Friday, with authorities reporting 18 killed in Israeli airstrikes across the south.
Netanyahu said Israel would make Hezbollah pay ‘heavy price’ for the killing of 4 Israeli soldiers.
The violence is the worst since the sealing of a US-Iran deal to halt the wider Middle East war, which was supposed to also pause the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The deaths of the soldiers drew a furious reaction in Israel, with far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir saying “Lebanon must burn.”
The Lebanese health ministry said the “intensive” strikes “resulted in a preliminary toll of 18 martyrs and 33 wounded” in at least 10 villages and towns.
Israel’s military said it hit scores of targets overnight and into the morning.
“The IDF (military) struck more than 80 command centers, terrorists, launch positions, and additional terrorist infrastructure sites in the area of Nabatieh and additional areas in southern Lebanon,” an army statement said.
“Furthermore, during the strikes, dozens of Hezbollah terrorists operating in the command centers were eliminated.”
Iran-backed Hezbollah, meanwhile, said it was attacking Israeli forces around the southern town of Nabatieh.
Other Israeli strikes targeted the Baalbek region in the east of the country, which had been largely spared since the start of the conflict on March 2.
Israel said its strikes in Baalbek and the Bekaa Valley were in response to “repeated violations of the ceasefire by Hezbollah,” which it said “continues to prepare and carry out terrorist attacks against Israeli soldiers.”
A military official said the incident involved an impact from “a suspicious target” on an Israeli tank, with Israeli military correspondents reporting it had been hit by “a suspected drone or anti-tank missile.”
In a separate statement the military also reported that a reserve officer was severely wounded “as a result of an explosive drone impact in southern Lebanon,” with four other soldiers lightly injured.
– with AFP
