{"id":94932,"date":"2026-05-03T00:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T00:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/94932\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T00:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T00:48:08","slug":"israeli-airstrikes-kill-seven-in-southern-lebanon-as-a-catholic-convent-is-bulldozed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/94932\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli airstrikes kill seven in southern Lebanon as a Catholic convent is bulldozed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beirut, Lebanon
AP<\/a><\/p>\n

Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon killed at least seven people and wounded others on Saturday while the Israeli military demolished parts of a Catholic convent in a border village, officials said.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s military on Saturday issued a new warning for residents of nine southern villages to evacuate.\u00a0Israel and Lebanon\u2019s militant Hezbollah group have kept up their attacks despite a ceasefire in place since 17th April.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Sanaa Khalil, 35, a Syrian farmer who lost her two legs in the past days by an Israeli airstrike while she was working at a banana plantation, lies on a bed as she is assisted by a relative at a hospital in the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, on Friday, 1st May, 2026. PICTURE: AP Photo\/Hussein Malla.<\/p>\n

In the border village of Yaroun, Israel\u2019s military used bulldozers to destroy parts of a Catholic convent that had been empty as a result of the latest fighting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we heard is that it was destroyed with bulldozers,\u201d said Gladys Sabbagh, the superior general of the Basilian Salvatorian Sisters. Sabbagh told The Associated Press that the convent included a school that had been closed since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, as well as a clinic that was recently moved to the nearby village of Rmeich.<\/p>\n

She described the convent as a small compound housing just two nuns, who left because of the war. Sabbagh did not have further details as Yaroun\u2019s residents have been displaced.<\/p>\n

Catholic Church disputes Israeli military\u2019s version
The Israeli military issued a statement saying that as the army was destroying Hezbollah infrastructure in Yaroun, a house that had no religious signs was damaged. It added that as soon as the military knew it was linked to a church, soldiers \u201cprevented any further damage from being done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The military added that Hezbollah used the compound in the past to fire rockets toward Israel on several occasions. It added that the military does not strike religious institutions intentionally.<\/p>\n

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The Catholic Church in Lebanon rejected claims that the compound was used for military purposes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are against all practices against places of worship and churches. These are places to spread peace, love and education,\u201d said Rev Abdo Abou Kassm, director of the Catholic Center for Information. \u201cThese are not military bases.\u201d<\/p>\n

The demolition at the convent came days after images of an Israeli soldier wielding an ax against the fallen\u00a0statue of Jesus\u00a0on the cross in the southern Lebanese village of Debel had sparked widespread condemnation, in Lebanon and internationally.<\/p>\n

Israel says it\u2019s targeting Hezbollah infrastructure and members
In other parts of southern Lebanon, Israeli airstrikes and Hezbollah attacks continued.<\/p>\n

Lebanon\u2019s state-run National News Agency reported an airstrike on a car in the village of Kfar Dajal killed two people, while another hit a home in the village of Lwaizeh, killing three. Two others were killed in a strike on the village of Shoukin, it said.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s military Arabic-language spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Ella Waweya, posted on X that the Israeli air force carried out about 50 airstrikes over the past 24 hours targeting Hezbollah infrastructure and members.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah said that it attacked with a drone Israeli troops who gathered on Saturday inside a house in the coastal village of Bayed.<\/p>\n

Over the past weeks, the Israeli army has been\u00a0levelling neighbourhoods\u00a0in towns and villages near the Lebanese-Israeli border. The military says it destroys buildings that were used as outposts by the Iran-backed group.<\/p>\n

The Israeli military released a new video that it said shows Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon being blown up. The video, released Friday, shows soldiers holding an Israeli flag and walking among the destruction of a soccer stadium in the Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil. The military said on its website that the air force \u201cdestroyed the town\u2019s stadium after it was discovered to be booby-trapped\u201d.<\/p>\n

The latest war between Israel and Hezbollah began on 2nd March, when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel, two days after the United States and Israel launched a war on its main backer, Iran. Israel has since carried out hundreds of airstrikes and launched a ground invasion\u00a0of southern Lebanon, capturing dozens of towns and villages along the border.<\/p>\n

Since then, Lebanon and Israel have held\u00a0their first direct talks in more than three decades. The two countries have formally been in a state of war since the founding of the state of Israel in 1948. A 10-day ceasefire declared in Washington went into effect on 17th April. The ceasefire was later extended by three weeks.<\/p>\n

The Health Ministry said that since the war began two months ago, 2,659 people have been killed and 8,183 wounded.<\/p>\n

\u2013 With IBRAHIM HAZBOUN in Jerusalem, Israel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beirut, Lebanon AP Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon killed at least seven people and wounded others on Saturday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94933,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[33437,8215,33333,33438,196,37,3542,93,21249,33334],"class_list":{"0":"post-94932","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lebanon","8":"tag-basilian-salvatorian-sisters","9":"tag-catholic-church","10":"tag-catholic-convent","11":"tag-gladys-sabbagh","12":"tag-iran-war","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-israel-lebanon-ceasefire","15":"tag-lebanon","16":"tag-rmeich","17":"tag-yaroun"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116507895652354469","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}