By Abdul Adil
London, (The Muslim news): Israeli air strikes killed at least 21 civilians in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry and local media.
Twelve victims — including three children and three women — were killed in a single strike on a home in the town of Deir Qanoun al-Nahr, the Lebanese National News Agency reported.
The Israeli military alleged it had targeted “a Hezbollah terrorist in a structure used for military purposes” in the area.
Meanwhile, one Israeli soldier was killed during Hezbollah attacks on Israeli forces occupying parts of southern Lebanon.
Among the survivors of the strike in Deir Qanoun al-Nahr was 100-year-old Hajeh Ne’meh.
She said she had stepped out briefly to buy bread. When she returned, her home was destroyed and the neighborhood had become what she described as “a massacre scene.”
“What can I do?” she asked through tears.
“These children used to play in the road beside me. I used to give them sweets.”
“How can this be allowed? Children being carried away like that?”
“Dear God… oh dear God…”
Ne’meh said the most unbearable moment was watching the bodies of children being carried away from the rubble.
Abdullah Najdi, the sole survivor from much of his immediate family after the strike, mourned the loss of relatives, saying only one brother and two sisters survived.
“Mom and Dad, you are my soul,” he said in farewell.
Elsewhere in southern Lebanon, Israel killed Nasser Ibrahim Nasr while he was loading bread into a municipal vehicle for distribution to residents in Harouf. The vehicle itself was later bombed, according to local reports.
Another municipal employee, Haj Jaffar al-Shami, was injured in the attack.
At least four women and three children were among those killed in Tuesday’s strikes across southern Lebanon, in what Lebanese officials described as another violation of the fragile U.S.-brokered ceasefire.
Israel’s military did not immediately comment on the civilian casualties or specific incidents but said it had targeted more than 25 alleged Hezbollah sites between Monday afternoon and Tuesday afternoon.
In Beirut, officials said a strike on Deir Qanoun al-Nahr in the Tyre district killed 10 people, including three children and three women. Three others, including a child, were wounded.
The National News Agency said the strike destroyed a house and left several people trapped beneath the rubble before their bodies were recovered later in the day.
Another strike on the southern city of Nabatieh killed four people and wounded 10 others, including two women, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. A separate attack in the nearby village of Kfar Sir killed five people, including one woman.
The latest casualties came one day after Lebanon’s death toll from the conflict surpassed 3,000, and two days after a ceasefire first agreed on April 17 was extended for another 45 days.
Hezbollah said Thursday that it had carried out 24 military operations over the previous 24 hours targeting Israeli troops, armored vehicles, and military positions across southern Lebanon.
The group said the attacks included drone strikes and rocket barrages conducted in response to what it called continued Israeli ceasefire violations and attacks on civilians.
Several operations focused on the town of Haddatha, where Hezbollah fighters said they engaged advancing Israeli troops in some of the heaviest clashes in recent days.
According to Hezbollah statements, repeated drone attacks targeted Israeli troop concentrations and military positions, while at least four Merkava tanks and two D9 bulldozers were hit in separate operations.
The group also claimed to have targeted an Israeli Hermes 450 drone with a surface-to-air missile in Lebanon’s central sector.
On Wednesday, the Israeli army said seven soldiers, including two officers, were wounded after an explosive drone crashed in southern Lebanon. One female soldier suffered serious injuries, while four others were moderately wounded.
Israeli attacks across Lebanon have continued despite a U.S.-mediated ceasefire that formally took effect on April 17 and was later extended into July.
Since March 2, Lebanon says more than 3,073 people have been killed, over 9,300 wounded, and more than 1.6 million displaced — roughly one-fifth of the country’s population.
NATO role in securing Strait of Hormuz
Meanwhile, France rejected any possible NATO role in securing the Strait of Hormuz, insisting the alliance’s mandate does not extend to the Middle East.
“Our position is clear and consistent: the North Atlantic Treaty applies to the North Atlantic,” French Foreign Ministry spokesman Pascal Confavreux said Thursday.
“It is neither the vocation nor the right alliance for a subject in the Middle East and Hormuz.”
His remarks came after NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe Gen. Alexus Grynkewich said the alliance was considering a possible role in maritime security operations in the Strait of Hormuz, though “no planning” had yet begun.
Iranian officials meanwhile claimed the United States had failed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz after Tehran blocked the strategic waterway.
According to Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency, a senior political official within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy said the closure was ordered by IRGC Navy Commander Alireza Tangsiri.
“The Americans, despite a thousand tricks and acts of deception, could not reopen it,” the official said.
He added that Iranian forces remained fully prepared for any future confrontation.
A separate Iranian military source told Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency that Tehran possessed advanced weapons systems “not yet used in war.”
Earlier Wednesday, Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority announced a new oversight zone requiring vessels traveling through designated areas of the Strait of Hormuz to coordinate with Iranian authorities.
Regional tensions have escalated since U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran earlier this year. Tehran retaliated with attacks targeting Israel and U.S. allies in the Gulf, alongside the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
A ceasefire mediated by Pakistan took effect on April 8, though negotiations failed to produce a lasting agreement. U.S. President Donald Trump later extended the truce indefinitely while maintaining restrictions on vessels traveling to or from Iranian ports.
Iran’s UN envoy, Amir Saeid Iravani, sharply criticized the UN Security Council on Wednesday for failing to address the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.
“Regrettably, the Security Council has failed to discharge its responsibilities in the face of this grave violation,” Iravani said.
He argued that the United States, Israel, and those supporting their actions “must bear full legal and international responsibility.”
Iravani also condemned repeated threats made by U.S. President Donald Trump against Iran, warning that such rhetoric “sets a dangerous precedent.”
Israel forces kill Palestinian child in Gaza
In Gaza, a Palestinian child was killed and two others wounded Thursday in an Israeli drone strike targeting civilians in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, according to medical sources.
The victim was identified as 13-year-old Joud Dweik. Officials at Al-Shifa Hospital said an Israeli quadcopter drone dropped a bomb on a gathering of civilians.
The strike was described as another violation of the ceasefire agreement that took effect in Gaza in October 2025.
Elsewhere, ambulance crews recovered the bodies of three Palestinians killed in earlier Israeli attacks in southern Gaza.
Medical sources said two of the dead were aid truck drivers whose bodies were recovered from areas near Israeli military positions in al-Mawasi, west of Rafah.
A third body was recovered from the Qarara area northeast of Khan Younis.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, at least 881 people have been killed and more than 2,600 wounded in Israeli attacks since the ceasefire began.
The broader war in Gaza has killed more than 72,000 people since October 2023, according to Palestinian officials, with women and children making up the majority of casualties.
More than 172,000 others have been injured, while widespread destruction has affected roughly 90% of civilian infrastructure.
[Photo: Emergency teams operate in the area affected by an Israeli airstrike that killed at least 10 civilians in Deir Qanoun an-Naher area in Tyre, Lebanon, on May 20, 2026. Photojournalist: Houssam Shbaro/AA]
