BEIRUT, Oct. 2 — Two Hezbollah members were killed and one civilian was injured on Thursday in an Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon, according to Lebanese sources.
The Lebanese Health Ministry’s Public Health Emergency Operations Center said in a release that the Israeli strike on a car on the Jarmaq/Khordali road near the city of Nabatieh, deep in the south, resulted in two deaths and one injury.
The official Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) said it was a drone attack. A Lebanese army intelligence source told Xinhua that the two deaths were Hezbollah members identified as Ahmad Saad and Mustafa Rizk.
Since November 27, 2024, a U.S.- and French-brokered ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel has been in effect, largely halting the clashes triggered by the Gaza war.
Despite the truce, the Israeli army continues to conduct occasional strikes in Lebanon, citing operations against Hezbollah “threats,” while maintaining forces at five main positions along the Lebanese border.
In a separate development, over 60 Syrian refugee families returned to their homeland on Thursday via the Masnaa border crossing in eastern Lebanon, marking the third group of returnees under a Lebanese government-backed repatriation plan.
The return operation was carried out in coordination with Syrian interim authorities and several international humanitarian organizations.
Lebanon’s Minister of Social Affairs Haneen Al-Sayed, who oversees the Syrian refugee portfolio, told the NNA that the number of Syrians expected to return under this plan could reach between 200,000 and 400,000 by the end of the year.
According to estimates by Lebanon’s General Security Directorate, Lebanon currently hosts more than 2.08 million Syrian refugees, although only 825,000 are officially registered with the UN refugee agency UNHCR. (Xinhua)
