An Israeli drone strike on a vehicle in Nabatieh al-Fawqa killed four people on Monday, including a school principal, her mother, a foreign domestic worker and a Syrian labourer, according to Lebanon’s health ministry and state news agency. The Israeli military said it had identified “four suspects” approaching the area its forces occupy in southern Lebanon and conducted a precise strike to remove the threat. The attack, which Lebanese security sources described as the deadliest in several weeks, occurred as the group returned from inspecting their family home, an area residents had considered safe from bombardment.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun stated that Israel’s continued occupation of southern territory prevents the Lebanese army from deploying and called on the US administration to press for a withdrawal, which he termed the key to any realistic progress towards peace. Hezbollah lawmaker Ihab Hamade denounced the strike as a “heinous crime against civilians” and held the Lebanese state responsible for ongoing Israeli violations. The Iran-backed group has rejected a US-brokered framework agreement signed by Lebanon and Israel on 26 June, which envisages its disarmament, a phased Israeli pull-out and the deployment of the Lebanese army, starting with two pilot zones but without a fixed timeline.

The strike has shattered the limited sense of security that had returned to southern Lebanon since a ceasefire took effect on 21 June. That truce, part of a wider US-Iran accord to end regional hostilities, has sharply reduced violence but not eliminated it. Israel maintains a self-declared security zone roughly 10 kilometres deep inside Lebanese territory and continues intermittent strikes, asserting the right to target Hezbollah operatives and infrastructure. More than 640,000 displaced people have returned home since the ceasefire, according to UN data, but residents in Nabatieh report that daily drone attacks are forcing some families to leave again and prompting the few reopened businesses to shut.

Viewed from Washington, the framework agreement is designed to convert the temporary truce into a permanent cessation of hostilities, yet its implementation hinges on Hezbollah’s disarmament—a step analysts in Beirut assess the Lebanese state lacks the capacity to enforce. The conflict erupted on 2 March when Hezbollah opened a front in support of Iran following the US-Israeli strikes on Tehran. Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have signalled that forces will remain in the south as long as necessary to protect northern communities. The next round of Israeli-Lebanese talks is expected in Rome later this month, with border arrangements and the status of the security zone likely to dominate the agenda.