Lebanon state media says one dead, 11 wounded in Israeli strike on south

AFP , Wednesday 5 Aug 2026

Lebanese official media said an Israeli attack on the country's south killed one person on Wednesday, as Israel announced it was carrying out strikes in retaliation for what it said was a Hezbollah ceasefire violation.

Smoke rises following an Israeli controlled-explosion on the village of Kfartibnit as seen from Nabatieh in southern Lebanon. AFP

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) said the Israeli strike "targeted the roof of a prayer area of the cemetery in the town of Tibnin", killing one person and wounding 11 others.

The Israeli military said it began striking targets in southern Lebanon on Wednesday just as Israel and Lebanon held talks in Rome, which are scheduled to run until Thursday.

At the same time, more than 800,000 people displaced by war in Lebanon have begun returning to their hometowns following a lull in violence amid the Israel-Hezbollah war, the United Nations said late on Tuesday.

UN humanitarian agency OCHA said "821,077 people had begun the return to their areas of origin as of 30 July", but added that more than 360,000 remained displaced, around 26,000 of them in government shelters.

Israel began to strike Lebanon heavily since early March with a ground invasion that killed more than 4,300 people and displaced more than a million at the peak.

Despite the signing in June of a preliminary US-Iran agreement on the wider regional conflict, which includes a ceasefire in Lebanon, and following a US-sponsored deal between Israel and Lebanon, the Lebanese media continues intermittent Israeli strikes and shelling, as well as detonations of explosives and demolitions in southern villages, with Israeli troops occupying a swathe of the area.

The OCHA said damage to water and electricity infrastructure from the war has severely affected access to water for more than 700,000 people in south Lebanon, home to most of those displaced by the war.

During negotiations in Washington in June, Israel and Lebanon agreed to a framework deal that involves the disarmament of Hezbollah, a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon's south and the deployment of the Lebanese army to the region, starting in test areas known as "pilot zones".

But Hezbollah has rejected the agreement and refuses to disarm, with leader Naim Qassem saying the direct negotiations will bring "nothing but shame, humiliation, and successive compromises" for Lebanon.