Israel carries out air strikes across southern Lebanon

Israeli aircraft carried out air strikes on multiple locations in southern Lebanon on May 17, 2026. Smoke rose from an Israeli air strike on the village of Zibqin, according to photographs released the same day.

One person was killed in an Israeli attack in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, Wafa reported. Earlier the same day, one person was killed and several others were wounded when Israeli forces targeted the center of Khan Younis.

Economic effects in Lebanon Lebanon entered the current conflict on a weakened economic footing following the 2019 financial crisis, economist Sami Zoughaib of the Policy Initiative said. Zoughaib stated that the 2019 crisis was “terribly mismanaged” and that many people who benefited from it were from the political class.

Consumer goods prices have risen by an estimated 20 to 25 percent, he added, at a time when a majority of the Lebanese population was already in some form of income poverty. The ability of producers in Lebanon to keep producing has been challenged by rising fuel costs and by the destruction and damage caused by the war, Zoughaib said.

Even if the war in Lebanon stops, the global oil crisis will not, and that is one of the major shocks genuinely impeding Lebanon’s ability to recover in the medium term, he said.