Lebanon death toll from Israeli attacks surpasses 8,900
Photo: REUTERS
The death toll from Israeli attacks on Lebanon over the past three years has surpassed 8,900, while the number of injured individuals has climbed to nearly 30,600, according to Lebanese health authorities.
In a statement released on Saturday, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health confirmed that Israeli strikes between October 2023 and September 2026 killed 8,920 people and wounded 30,595 others.
Out of these total casualties, authorities documented 4,358 deaths and 12,359 injuries since 2 March.
A report that the Health Ministry published on Wednesday also revealed that Israeli forces launched 179 attacks on ambulance crews since March 2, which killed 135 healthcare workers. The date of 2 March marked the latest escalation of Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon.
On that specific day, an Israeli strike on Beirut claimed 31 lives after a Hezbollah rocket targeted northern Israel. UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, reported that 360,000 people remained displaced by Israeli military actions in August, with at least 22,000 of them residing in collective shelters.
These casualty figures emerged during a period of rising Israeli violence throughout southern Lebanon, despite two US-brokered “peace” agreements that both parties signed in June. Israel has maintained a military occupation of southern Lebanon since March, the month it declared the creation of a “buffer” zone.
The 26 June framework agreement made any resolution dependent on the disarmament of Hezbollah. However, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem rejected this framework agreement, calling it “null and void”, and demanded that Israel first terminate its occupation.
The bilateral agreement did not explicitly demand the withdrawal of Israeli military forces from southern Lebanon. On Friday, an Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese town of Kfar Reman killed three people and injured 23 others.
Israeli military claimed that its forces successfully cleared Hezbollah fighters from a network of tunnels situated beneath the strategic Ali al-Taher bridge. On the same day, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported that Israeli raids and artillery shelling struck seven towns across the Tyre and Nabatieh districts, though these attacks caused no reported casualties.
Israeli warplanes launched bombs at Zawtar al-Sharqiyah in southern Lebanon on Sunday.
Source: Al Jazeera (adapted)
