A car burned on a road in south Lebanon on Sunday evening, and two people were dead inside and beside it. Who they were is where the accounts split.
On January 4, 2026, an Israeli drone hit the vehicle in the Bint Jbeil district, and two people died, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said, as quoted by TRT World from the state news agency NNA. The Israeli army’s statement said the target was a Hezbollah operative near Al Jumayjimah. Hezbollah offered no comment. L’Orient Today, whose correspondent in the south obtained videos of the scene, reported that the dead were the driver and someone walking along the road, and that the ministry confirmed both were Lebanese civilians. The car burned out completely. Israeli media said the army claimed it had been aiming at a Hezbollah fighter, with no further details.
The Israeli side named one target. The Lebanese side counted two civilians.
The same night, more of the same
L’Orient Today said a second drone, roughly an hour later, scattered incendiary bombs near Blida and started fires. Two loud explosions followed overnight. Residents of Khiam felt a powerful blast around midnight, and another rolled through Houla at about 2 a.m. while drones flew overhead. Earlier, a drone had dropped a sound bomb over Odaisseh as fighter jets crossed the sky.
All of this happened under a ceasefire that took effect in November 2024. TRT counted the dead from the preceding year of cross-border fighting at over 4,000, with 17,000 hurt. The deal required Israeli forces to leave southern Lebanon in January, but they have pulled back only partly and still hold five border outposts.
Israeli media had reported lately that the army had finished preparing a “large-scale attack” on Hezbollah positions, to be launched should Beirut and its army fail to disarm the group.
That same Sunday, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the UN’s special coordinator for Lebanon, arrived in Israel for talks with senior officials about Security Council Resolution 1701 and the ceasefire agreement.
Sources
- Israel strikes Lebanon, killing two amid fragile ceasefire (TRT World)
- Israeli drone strike on car in Bint Jbeil district kills 2 (L'Orient Today)
