Israeli Drone Strike Kills Two in Lebanon's Nabatieh

Two young men were killed on Friday in an Israeli drone strike targeting them while they were on a motorcycle near the Engineers Syndicate building in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh, according to the Lebanese National News Agency. Ambulance teams transported the bodies to a Nabatieh hospital, while firefighters worked to extinguish a blaze that erupted on the motorcycle.

The strike occurred amid a broader escalation by the Israeli military in southern Lebanon on Friday, which included artillery shelling and explosions affecting seven towns in the districts of Tyre and Nabatieh. The Lebanese agency reported that Israeli attacks hit the towns of Mansouri, Majdal Zoun, Bayt al-Siyad, Beit Leif, Sarbin, Zawtar al-Sharqiyya, and Mefdou. In the Tyre district, artillery shelling targeted the vicinity of Beit Leif and Sarbin in the morning, following earlier shelling of Mansouri, Majdal Zoun, and Bayt al-Siyad at dawn. Israeli forces also carried out explosions in Mansouri, though details were not provided.

In the Nabatieh district, the town of Zawtar al-Sharqiyya and the outskirts of Mefdou were subjected to intermittent Israeli artillery shelling. An Israeli Merkava tank also targeted neighborhoods in Zawtar al-Sharqiyya from the direction of Mefdou, accompanied by sounds of successive explosions and heavy machine-gun fire from the western outskirts of the town. The artillery shelling caused a fire in the targeted area of Zawtar al-Sharqiyya.

These attacks come amid ongoing Israeli escalation against villages and towns in southern Lebanon, despite an agreement between Beirut and Tel Aviv for a gradual Israeli withdrawal within a US-brokered negotiation process. Since March 2, 2026, Israel's actions in Lebanon have resulted in over 4,000 deaths, more than 12,000 injuries, and the displacement of over a million people, according to Lebanese authorities.