Israeli airstrikes killed at least 14 people across Lebanon on Easter Sunday, including seven members of a single family in the village of Kfarhata. Among the dead was a four-year-old child. [1] Separately, a strike on the southern Beirut neighborhood of Jnah landed approximately 100 meters from Rafik Hariri University Hospital, the largest public medical facility in the country, killing at least four people and wounding 39. [2]

In Habbush, near the southern city of Tyre, an Israeli strike killed two girls and wounded 22. [3] In al-Hawsh, 18 more were wounded, including a child, three women, and three paramedics. Overnight strikes destroyed two buildings near the Lebanese Italian Hospital in Tyre, shattering windows and collapsing suspended ceilings, though the facility's director said it would remain open. [3]

The day's violence came alongside an Israeli announcement that carries longer-term implications: plans to maintain a military presence south of the Litani River. [1] The Litani, which runs roughly 29 kilometers north of the Israeli border, was the demarcation line established by UN Security Council Resolution 1701 after the 2006 war. An occupation south of the river would formalize what ground operations over the past month have already made de facto -- Israeli military control over a significant portion of southern Lebanon.

Since March 2, Lebanese health officials have counted at least 1,368 people killed and 4,138 wounded by Israeli attacks, with over one million displaced. [3] Of those killed, 125 were children. The numbers continue to climb daily. The military campaign has destroyed mosques, residential buildings, and infrastructure including bridges linking towns in the south.

Israeli forces on Sunday also destroyed houses in Aita al-Shaab and Ramyah and bombed bridges connecting Samar with Mashghara, claiming Hezbollah used them for operational movement. [3] In the Burj al-Shamali Palestinian refugee camp southeast of Tyre, an 11-story building was reduced to rubble. [3]

Easter Sunday in Lebanon is not merely a calendar date. The country's Christian population -- Maronite, Greek Orthodox, Armenian -- marks the holiday as one of the year's most significant. That the day's defining images were of rescue workers pulling bodies from collapsed homes in Kfarhata and shattered glass being swept from hospital corridors in Tyre carries a symbolism that transcends the daily toll.

The occupation plan south of the Litani transforms the military campaign from punitive operation into territorial control. What began as a response to Hezbollah provocations now has the architecture of permanence.

-- YOSEF STERN, Jerusalem