Despite truce, IDF hits Lebanon after repeated Hezbollah attacks; at least 27 said killed

Israel carried out a wave of strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon overnight and into Saturday morning, saying that the Israel Defense Forces was targeting Hezbollah after the Iran-backed terror group attacked troops in violation of a day-old ceasefire. Lebanese media and first responders reported at least 27 people killed and 26 wounded in the strikes.

The IDF said it was “committed to the ceasefire agreement in accordance with the directives of the political echelon,” but struck Hezbollah in south Lebanon after the terror group fired “some 50 projectiles at Israeli troops” in separate overnight incidents in the area.

The military did not provide information on casualties from Hezbollah’s attacks, which the IDF said “constitute repeated violations of the ceasefire agreement.”

“The IDF will not accept harm to Israeli civilians and its forces, and will respond forcefully to any use of force against them,” the military said, adding that the Hezbollah targets struck Saturday included rocket launchers, weapon depots and command centers.

Hezbollah also claimed it had “adhered to the ceasefire” since Friday afternoon, but attacked Israeli forces attempting to advance in south Lebanon overnight.

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“Hezbollah broke the ceasefire, not Israel,” Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter wrote Saturday on X. “Terrorists lie. Hezbollah is a terrorist organization. Hezbollah lies.”

He also said that “Iran is using its proxy to extract concessions” and that “Israel has no territorial ambitions in Lebanon.”

“Israel is honoring the ceasefire while defending itself against terrorist attacks, as any self-respecting country would,” added Leiter, who said there would be “more details to come.”

Israel’s continued strikes in Lebanon have confounded US-Iran peace efforts and elicited unprecedented criticism from the White House.

On Saturday, Lebanese state media said Israeli planes and drones struck across the Nabatieh region overnight and into the morning, destroying residential buildings and houses, while Israeli artillery shelled the city and its outskirts before dawn.

The Lebanese army said one of its soldiers was killed in an Israeli strike on the Kfarrumman-Nabatieh road.

“The continuation of brutal Israeli attacks aims to obstruct any solution that would allow for restoring stability in Lebanon,” the Lebanese army said.

IDF strikes were also reported in Hezbollah’s eastern Beqaa Valley heartland, where Lebanon’s National News Agency said a strike hit a home in the town of Sohmor, killing four people and wounding one.

“A child is still under the rubble and rescue teams are working to extract him,” NNA reported.

An earlier strike in the southern town of Barsh, in the Tyre district, hit a three-story residential building, killing a father, mother and their two children, a local official told Reuters.

A separate mid-day strike in the town of Qennarit, near Sidon, killed seven people and wounded 13, according to local media.

In a statement, Hezbollah said it had attacked Israeli troops who tried to capture the Nabatieh-area Ali Taher ridge overnight. The military, which assesses Hezbollah has a major tunnel system built under the hill, did not comment on the claim.

According to Hezbollah, its fighters ambushed advancing Israeli troops. The terror group said that “alongside its commitment to the ceasefire, it will not tolerate any attempt by the enemy to seize land and expand its occupation.”

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah also said in a statement that the terror group has the right to respond to Israeli attacks.

“There is talk of a ceasefire. For us, what concerns us is that the enemy fully and comprehensively respects the ceasefire, and doesn’t attempt to attack our country and villages or seek to occupy any new position,” Fadlallah said in a statement. “The resistance has the full right to confront this enemy when it attacks us, as it is the aggressor and the occupier.”

Israeli strikes in south Lebanon and the Beqaa on Friday had killed over 40 people, according to the Lebanese health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. The strikes came after Hezbollah killed four Israeli soldiers and wounded others in separate incidents in south Lebanon.

Following Friday’s flare-up, a US official announced a truce that began at 4 p.m. local time. Israeli and Hezbollah sources confirmed the agreement to Reuters.

Previous ceasefires reached in US-brokered Israeli-Lebanese talks have failed to stick, with Hezbollah rejecting the talks out of hand and slamming the Lebanese government for negotiating directly with Israel.

The latest truce appeared as fragile as ever, because it keeps Israeli forces in the large buffer zone the IDF established in south Lebanon. Hezbollah has used the buffer zone as a pretext to keep up attacks on Israeli troops and border communities.

Iran also demands a full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, and the memorandum of understanding signed by the US and Iran this week calls for an end to all regional hostilities, including Lebanon. Israel is not a party to the agreement and has vowed to stay put in Lebanon.

Hezbollah renewed its attacks on Israel in March in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei at the start of the US-Israeli bombing campaign in Iran on February 28.

Hezbollah at the time also cited Israel’s continued presence and attacks in Lebanon since the November 2024 Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire agreement, which had ended over a year of hostilities initiated by the terror group.

Israel has said its continued operations in Lebanon since the 2024 agreement were required because the Lebanese government had failed its requirement under the deal to disarm Hezbollah.

Hezbollah’s renewed attacks on Israel in March triggered massive Israeli airstrikes and a full-scale invasion of Lebanon, where authorities say close to 4,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.

The IDF says it has since early March killed over 2,500 Hezbollah operatives, including hundreds of members of the terror group’s elite Radwan Force.

Israeli forces have lost 35 IDF soldiers and a Defense Ministry civilian contractor since March 2. Two civilians were also killed by Hezbollah rockets, and an Israeli civilian was mistakenly killed in the north by Israeli artillery shelling.