One Year After Ceasefire, IDF Strikes Southern Lebanon To Prevent Hezbollah From Rearming
Israeli forces carried out new strikes in southern Lebanon on Thursday, an operation the military linked to ongoing efforts to prevent Hezbollah from restoring its capabilities a year after the ceasefire that halted the group’s cross-border attacks. The latest assault came shortly after Hezbollah confirmed the death of senior commander Haytham Ali Tabatabai in an Israeli strike in Beirut earlier in the week.
The Air Force, acting on military intelligence guidance, hit sites in Mahmoudiyeh before expanding the operation to other nearby villages. According to the IDF, the targets included weapons depots, launch areas for rockets, and additional facilities used by Hezbollah to prepare attacks on Israeli troops.
Give the gift of hope
We practice what we preach:
accurate, fearless journalism. But we can't do it alone.
- On the ground in Gaza, Syria, Israel, Egypt, Pakistan, and more
- Our program trained more than 100 journalists
- Calling out fake news and reporting real facts
- On the ground in Gaza, Syria, Israel, Egypt, Pakistan, and more
- Our program trained more than 100 journalists
- Calling out fake news and reporting real facts
Join us.
Support The Media Line. Save democracy.
“The presence of the infrastructure sites and the activity of the Hezbollah terrorist organization in these areas constitute a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon,” the army said, adding that it would keep acting to remove threats while adhering to the agreement with Beirut.
The renewed activity in the south follows what Lebanese outlets described as a strike on residential floors in Dahieh that killed Tabatabai and wounded about two dozen others. Hezbollah acknowledged his death but did not issue an immediate vow of retaliation.
Israeli forces have been operating inside Lebanon throughout the year to enforce the terms of the truce that took effect on November 27, 2024. The military says its strikes and ground actions since then have eliminated more than 370 terror operatives, most of them Hezbollah members. Troops have also conducted over 1,200 raids, mainly around five Israeli positions just inside Lebanese territory, locating weapons, launch sites, and structures used by Hezbollah, and dismantling intelligence-gathering networks.
Activity expanded on additional fronts on Thursday. In the northern West Bank, troops carried out a broad sweep in Jenin under Operation Five Stones, searching more than 220 sites, detaining suspects, seizing weapons, and destroying hideouts tied to past attacks on civilians and soldiers. Meanwhile, reports from Syria said an IDF unit entered a village in the Quneitra area and ordered residents to keep away from the surrounding farmland.
