Israeli drone attacks on Lebanon highway leave eight dead

Updated by Faith Barbara N Ruhinda at 1359 EAT on Wednesday 13 May 2026

At least eight people, including two children, were killed after three Israeli drone strikes targeted vehicles on a major highway linking Beirut to southern Lebanon, Lebanon’s Ministry of Health said.

Photographs released by Lebanon’s National News Agency following Wednesday’s attacks in the Jiyeh area, about 20km (12 miles) south of the Lebanese capital, showed the vehicles badly damaged, with charred exteriors and twisted metal strewn across the roadway.

Lebanon and Israel are expected to hold a new round of direct negotiations in Washington on Thursday, brokered by the United States.

Hezbollah, which has been launching attacks on northern Israel and on Israeli troops who have entered and occupied a section of southern Lebanon, says it opposes the negotiations in the US.

On Wednesday morning, the Israeli military issued forced displacement orders for the residents of Meiss el-Jabal, Yanouh, Burj Shemali, Hula, Debl and Aabbasiyyeh, warning that it will soon act against these six southern Lebanese villages “forcefully”.

Anyone who remains “endangers their life,” the military said, warning residents to move at least 1,000 metres (0.6 miles) away to “open areas”.

On Tuesday, 13 people were killed in attacks on towns in the south, including two Lebanese Civil Defence paramedics, Hussein Jaber and Ahmad Noura, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health.

The ministry reported that at least 380 people have been killed during the truce, bringing the total death toll since the Israeli invasion and bombardment began on March 2 to more than 2,800.

It also said on Monday that 108 emergency medical services and healthcare workers had been killed in Lebanon during the war, with more than 140 Israeli attacks recorded on ambulances and medical facilities.

“All of this is having a huge impact here on the communities in southern Lebanon,” Al Jazeera’s Obaida Hitto said from Tyre. “And there is a growing humanitarian crisis, with over a million people displaced.”

-Aljazeera

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