Updates
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BBC Verify analysis has found that more than 1,400 buildings in southern Lebanese towns and villages have been destroyed since 2 March through Israeli controlled demolitions, with satellite imagery and verified videos showing settlements being systematically levelled — a pattern that international law experts say may amount to a war crime. The campaign follows an explicit order by Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz on 22 March to "accelerate the destruction of Lebanese homes" near the border, modelled on Israel's approach in Gaza. Separately, Israeli soldiers on Tuesday blocked part of a UN supply convoy carrying food and hygiene goods to UNIFIL's headquarters in Naqoura, despite the convoy having pre-notified the Israeli military of its movements, according to UNIFIL spokeswoman Kandice Ardiel, who described the incident as "not trivial and worrying."
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Three successive Israeli strikes in the southern Lebanese town of Mayfadoun killed at least three paramedics and wounded six others on Wednesday, Lebanese officials say, in an incident they describe as a "flagrant crime" and deliberate targeting of health workers. The attacks struck first a team from the Islamic Health Association that had responded to rescue people from an earlier Israeli strike, then a second Islamic Health Association team that came to assist, and finally two ambulances from the Risala Scout Association and the Nabatieh Ambulance Service. Among those killed was Fadel Serhan, a 43-year-old paramedic and father of eight who had been operating out of a tent near Nabih Berri Hospital after his own station in Mayfadoun was destroyed in an Israeli air strike at the start of the conflict. The Israeli military has been approached for comment but has not yet responded.
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United Nations human rights experts issued a statement Monday detailing a series of Israeli air strikes in March that set fire to tents sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza, killing many, and called the repeated displacement of Gaza's population — the vast majority of whom have been uprooted multiple times — a form of forcible transfer in breach of international humanitarian law. The UN panel also criticised what it described as a sharp escalation in forced displacement across the occupied West Bank, driven by Israeli forces and settlers. Separately, two more Palestinians were killed in strikes in southern Gaza on Monday, bringing the total death toll since the 2025 ceasefire began to more than 750. In Lebanon, the IDF said its troops killed more than 20 Hezbollah fighters operating from a hospital compound in Bint Jbeil on Sunday, a claim Lebanon's health ministry denied, accusing Israel of targeting civilians and medical facilities; BBC reporting from Nabatieh found the city largely abandoned, with one in five Lebanese now displaced since fighting renewed in March.
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European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned Monday that a potential closure of the Strait of Hormuz, combined with ongoing Israeli strikes on Lebanon, poses a serious threat to regional stability, following a Brussels meeting focused on the fallout from the Iran conflict. Separately, Israeli forces have continued their ground advance into southern Lebanon even as new talks are scheduled, with Al Jazeera reporting fresh devastating strikes on Beirut.
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Italy summoned Israel's ambassador last week after Israeli forces fired warning shots at an Italian convoy, and Israel responded Monday by summoning Italy's ambassador in turn to protest Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani's condemnation of what he called Israel's "unacceptable attacks" on civilians in Lebanon. Tajani, a senior figure in Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government, visited Beirut on Monday and met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi, calling for a "necessary and lasting ceasefire" and warning that "another escalation like in Gaza must be avoided at all costs." Israel's military said a major wave of strikes last week killed five Hezbollah commanders and more than 250 fighters from the group.
Israeli military operations intensified across multiple fronts on Monday, with air strikes and artillery fire killing dozens of people in Gaza and southern Lebanon, even as diplomatic efforts to end the fighting continued in Cairo and Washington. The simultaneous escalation on two fronts has raised urgent questions about the viability of ceasefire frameworks that remain fragile and, by many accounts, largely unimplemented.
In Gaza, an Israeli air strike killed at least three Palestinians gathered outside a school in Deir el-Balah, a town in central Gaza, according to medics at the nearby Al-Aqsa Hospital. Israeli forces also conducted overnight raids across the occupied West Bank — the Palestinian territories east of Israel under Israeli military control since 1967 — arresting at least 30 people, including children and previously released detainees. More than 750 Palestinians have been killed since a US-brokered ceasefire came into effect last October, a deal that left Israeli troops occupying a buffer zone covering more than half of Gaza's territory. Hamas fighters have killed four Israeli soldiers in the same period, and both sides have accused the other of violations. These latest killings came as Hamas leaders met mediators from Egypt, Türkiye and Qatar in Cairo to discuss implementing the second phase of the truce, which would require Hamas to disarm in stages over eight months — a condition the group has so far refused to accept without full Israeli compliance with the first phase.
In Lebanon, at least six people were killed in a new wave of Israeli air strikes on towns across the south of the country. Among the sites struck was a Red Cross facility in Tyre, an ancient coastal city in southern Lebanon, where Israeli warplanes hit an International Committee of the Red Cross centre, damaging vehicles and killing one person. Emergency workers reported repeated disruptions to rescue operations due to ongoing shelling. The Israeli military announced it had completed the encirclement of Bint Jbeil, a town roughly five kilometres from the Israeli border, and said it expected full operational control within days after claiming to have killed more than 100 Hezbollah fighters there over the past week. Bint Jbeil carries heavy symbolic weight: it was the scene of fierce resistance during the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group backed by Iran.
Diplomatic efforts are running in parallel to the military offensive. Israeli and Lebanese officials are scheduled to hold talks in Washington on Tuesday at ambassador level, under US mediation, with the aim of establishing a pause in hostilities and laying the groundwork for a broader ceasefire. Lebanon's culture minister, Ghassan Salame, acknowledged that Beirut enters the talks with limited leverage, describing the meeting as preparatory rather than decisive. At least 2,055 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel expanded its offensive in March, according to figures compiled from Lebanese state media.
Why this matters: The dual escalation underscores the interconnected nature of the conflicts reshaping the Middle East. Ceasefire negotiations in Cairo and Washington are proceeding against a backdrop of continued military pressure, creating conditions in which talks and fighting advance simultaneously — a dynamic that has historically made durable agreements harder to achieve. The strike on the Red Cross facility in Tyre adds a humanitarian dimension, raising concerns about protected sites and safe access for aid workers in active combat zones.
This article was automatically compiled by AI from the sources above. It may contain inaccuracies. Always read the original sources for the full context.
