An Israeli drone strike on the Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil on Sunday killed five people, including three children, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
Lebanon’s state news agency reported the strike hit a motorcycle carrying a militant and a car carrying a family. The father and three children in the car were killed, while the mother survived with critical injuries.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the strike targeted a Hezbollah operative but also unintentionally killed several civilians. The military stated it “regrets any harm to uninvolved [civilians], and operates to minimize harm as much as possible.”
The IDF said the incident is now under review.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri earlier claimed the family held U.S. citizenship, but the U.S. State Department denied this. “So far, indications are that the five killed were not U.S. citizens. In fact, one had an unused immigrant visa petition in the past,” a spokesperson said.
Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam condemned the attack as a “massacre” against civilians, saying the Israeli strike was a “message of intimidation targeting our people returning to their villages in the south.”
He called on the international community to denounce Israel “in the strongest terms for its repeated violations of international resolutions and international law.”
UNICEF condemned the strikes in a post on X, stating: “Attacks on children are unconscionable. No child should ever pay the price of conflict with their life.”
UNICEF is deeply shocked and outraged by the killing of three children from the same family in an airstrike in South #Lebanon.
Attacks on children are unconscionable. No child should ever pay the price of conflict with their life.
Hostilities must cease immediately to ensure… pic.twitter.com/3Qt3ulM6q5
— UNICEF Lebanon (@UNICEFLebanon) September 21, 2025
The strike comes despite a U.S.-brokered truce aimed at halting hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah after more than a year of fighting that left roughly 4,000 people dead in Lebanon.
The ceasefire has remained fragile. Despite the truce, Israeli airstrikes have continued in southern Lebanon amid Hezbollah’s reported efforts to rebuild its military capabilities in the region.
