TEHRAN – Israel continues to violate the ceasefire reached with Lebanon’s Hezbollah in November 2024, launching fresh air raids that have left over a dozen civilians dead. 

On Wednesday, an Israeli strike on the Bint Jbeil district in southern Lebanon killed one person and injured several others, underscoring Tel Aviv’s disregard for Lebanese sovereignty and international mediation.

The attack came just a day after a devastating Israeli airstrike on the Ein el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in the southern port city of Sidon, which killed 13 people and wounded several others. The strike hit a car in the car park of a mosque inside the camp, sending ambulances rushing victims to nearby hospitals.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health warned that the toll was still rising, making it one of the deadliest incidents since the ceasefire was brokered.

Israel claimed responsibility for the Tuesday strike, saying its forces targeted Hamas operatives allegedly using compounds in Lebanon. The Israeli military vowed it would “continue to act forcefully against Hamas’s attempts to establish a foothold in Lebanon.” Hamas, however, rejected the accusation outright, calling it a “fabrication” and stressing that it does not operate training facilities in Lebanon’s refugee camps. In its statement, Hamas condemned the bombardment as “barbaric aggression against our innocent Palestinian people as well as Lebanon’s sovereignty.”

Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health has reported that since the ceasefire, more than 270 people have been killed and about 850 wounded by Israeli military actions in Lebanon. The broader conflict between Israel and Lebanon began on October 8, 2023, a day after Israel launched its war on Gaza. It escalated into a full-scale war in September 2024, killing more than 4,000 people in Lebanon, many of them civilians, before a U.S.-brokered ceasefire was reached in late November last year. 

Hezbollah has condemned the strikes as proof that Israel cannot be trusted to honor agreements, framing its resistance as essential to defending Lebanon’s sovereignty and protecting Palestinian refugees who remain vulnerable to bombardment. For many Lebanese, Hezbollah’s role resonates as the only credible deterrent against further violations.

Hezbollah’s resistance has become more critical than ever, as Lebanon faces the dual challenge of rebuilding after war while defending itself against continued assaults. The persistence of Israeli strikes demonstrates that peace cannot be achieved through broken promises and unilateral force, but only through genuine respect for agreements and recognition of Lebanon’s right to protect its people.