Israeli forces carried out one of the heaviest waves of strikes on Lebanon since a US-brokered ceasefire took effect in mid-April, killing at least 31 people — including at least four children — and wounding 40 others, according to Lebanon's health ministry. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel was "deepening" its operations, saying the military was operating with "large forces on the ground" and "fortifying the security zone" to protect communities in northern Israel. The Israeli military said it struck more than 100 Hezbollah infrastructure sites, weapons storage facilities, command centres, and observation posts in a single night.
The strikes hit towns and villages across southern and eastern Lebanon, with some of the heaviest casualties recorded in Burj al-Shamali, near the southern city of Tyre, where 14 people were killed, and in the Bekaa Valley village of Mashghara, where 11 people — including a woman and two children — were pulled from the rubble of their homes. Strikes also hit near Lebanon's largest dam on the Qaraoun lake in the Litani River, a major waterway in the east of the country, prompting the Litani River Authority to warn of "catastrophic risks" to downstream residents if the dam were damaged. One strike hit near a public hospital in Nabatieh, a city in southern Lebanon, causing significant damage, according to the country's state news agency. A civil defence rescuer was also killed during a double-tap strike near Qaraoun while attending to a previous victim, raising the war's rescuer death toll to 121.
Israel's ground operations also expanded, with an Israeli military official saying troops had moved beyond the so-called "Yellow Line" — a boundary roughly ten kilometres inside Lebanese territory that Israel had previously set as a limit. Hezbollah said its fighters repelled an Israeli force advancing toward Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, a town overlooking Nabatieh on the northern bank of the Litani River, and claimed to have destroyed a tank during direct clashes. Hezbollah also launched drone and rocket attacks on Israeli military positions and barracks in northern Israel, with sirens sounding in the town of Kiryat Shmona and its surroundings, though no injuries were reported.
The escalation came despite a ceasefire formally in force since 17 April. The United Nations reported that on Monday alone, its peacekeeping force in Lebanon detected 91 Israeli airspace violations — the highest number since the cessation of hostilities began — along with 399 firing incidents attributed to Israeli forces and 11 projectile launches attributed to Hezbollah. A US official, speaking to Al Jazeera, placed responsibility for the escalation on Hezbollah, accusing the group of "provoking conflict to ensure its political survival" and arguing that the "only path to lasting peace" lay in direct negotiations between the Israeli and Lebanese governments.
The conflict has taken a severe toll on Lebanon's civilian population. The Lebanese health ministry says Israeli strikes have killed at least 3,185 people since fighting resumed on 2 March, when Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the broader regional conflict. Israel says it has lost 23 soldiers and one civilian contractor in southern Lebanon over the same period. With ceasefire talks involving the US, Israel, and Iran still ongoing, the latest surge in violence raises serious doubts about the durability of any agreed pause in fighting.