Lebanon pushes for US support as family killed by Israel attack are buried

Lebanon is pushing to get more support from the United States after another deadly Israeli drone attack on southern Lebanon, which this time killed five people, including three children, the latest in a series of near-daily violations by Israel of the US-brokered November 2024 ceasefire.

President Joseph Aoun and other officials met with a delegation led by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Lebanese presidency said in a statement on Tuesday.

Aoun asked Rubio to ensure Israel sticks to the truce with the armed Lebanese group Hezbollah, as Israel continues to launch attacks on Lebanon.

The Lebanese president said he wants Israel to stop occupying parts of his country, is looking to gear its army with “equipment and supplies” from the US, and needs Washington’s support to hold a conference dedicated to reconstruction in Lebanon.

Amid ongoing efforts to disarm Hezbollah, Aoun emphasised that the Lebanese army’s mandate includes “all Lebanese regions” as the country tries to seize an opportunity “to achieve just, comprehensive, and lasting peace in the Middle East region”.

He is also scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, where he is expected to denounce Israeli attacks across the region, including in Gaza and Lebanon.

Faced with a heavy push from Israel, the US, the Lebanese government and Saudi Arabia to disarm, Hezbollah has categorically refused to put down its weapons, despite seeing its top political and military commanders assassinated during the war on Gaza.

Secretary-General Naim Qassem last week directly appealed to Saudi Arabia to mend relations and unite against Israel, saying in a speech that the Iran-backed “resistance” axis is not the enemy.

Amid the political fighting, civilians continue to pay the price in Lebanon, particularly in its southern parts.

A funeral was held on Tuesday for the members of the same family who were brutally killed by the Israeli drone attack on a vehicle in Bint Jbeil in the south two days earlier.

They included a father and his three children, two of them twins aged one and a half years. The mother of the family and another one of their daughters were also in the car, and are seriously wounded in hospital.

The Israeli army acknowledged that civilians were killed during the attack, but claimed the target was a fifth individual killed, who was allegedly a member of Hezbollah – the rationale it always gives without evidence for its attacks in Lebanon.

The “terrorist operated in a civilian population area”, the military said, using a common justification for its attacks that regularly kill civilians, also describing this as running counter to “understandings between Israel and Lebanon”.

Lebanon’s parliament speaker and longtime Amal movement leader Nabih Berri said the three children – named Celine, Hadi, and Aseel – and their father were US citizens.

But a US State Department spokesperson said they were not US citizens, and “one had an unused immigrant visa petition in the past”.

Aoun and other top Lebanese officials described the killings as a “new massacre” that must be stopped.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, who was previously president of the International Court of Justice, said Israel is trying to intimidate Lebanese civilians returning to their mostly destroyed villages and towns in southern Lebanon.

Lebanon’s National News Agency reported on Tuesday morning that Israeli forces opened fire from a military post in the occupied Shebaa Farms, targeting an area on the outskirts of the town of Kfarchouba, which was repeatedly bombed during the war. No casualties were reported.

On Monday, the outlet said an Israeli drone dropped a sound bomb near civilians who were overseeing the clearing of rubble from their homes, which were destroyed by the Israeli military, in the town of Maroun al-Ras in southern Lebanon.