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Israeli troops have killed a Lebanese municipal worker while carrying out a raid in the south of the country, prompting Lebanon’s president to order the army to confront future incursions.
Lebanese state media identified the slain man as Ibrahim Salameh, an employee of the Blida municipality, a village near the border with Israel. The Israeli military confirmed the raid and said it was attacking Hezbollah infrastructure when it fired at a “suspect”, and said that the incident was under review.
Israeli forces on Thursday “stormed the Blida municipality building, where employee Ibrahim Salameh was sleeping, and enemy soldiers proceeded to kill him”, Lebanon’s state media said. In the room where Salameh had been sleeping at the time of the raid, mattresses were soaked with blood and bullet holes dotted the walls, according to the Agence France-Presse.
The killing of the municipal employee led to widespread anger in Lebanon and rage over the repeated violations of Lebanese sovereignty. In the hours after the raid, Israel carried out airstrikes in Labouneh in southwest Lebanon, and Israeli drones could be heard flying low over Beirut.
The Lebanese president, Joseph Aoun, condemned the raid and ordered the Lebanese army to confront Israeli soldiers in any future incursions on to Lebanese territory. In a statement, Aoun instructed the army to “confront any Israeli incursion into liberated southern territory, in defence of Lebanese territory and the safety of citizens”.
The raid and the killing occurred despite a November 2024 ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel which mandated the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the cessation of hostilities between both parties.
Israel carries out near-daily airstrikes on south Lebanon and the Bekaa valley despite the agreement, which it says is directed at preventing the rebuilding of Hezbollah. It also has kept Israeli soldiers at five different locations within Lebanon.
Hezbollah has said it complies with the terms of the ceasefire deal.
The hours-long raid came as tensions between Israel and Lebanon grew, with a flurry of diplomatic activity in Beirut and foreign envoys pushing the Lebanese government to fully disarm Hezbollah.
The Lebanese government has in the past said that it must not rush the disarmament of Hezbollah, which it said it is committed to, to avoid sparking a civil war.
On Wednesday, US envoy Morgan Ortagus said that Washington hailed the “decision to bring all weapons under state control by the end of the year” during a visit to the border city of Naqoura, where indirect negotiations with Israel were previously held.
