Israeli air attacks on southern and eastern Lebanon have killed at least six people and wounded three others, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency, in what Lebanese officials and media described as another breach of the ceasefire reached last month through US mediation.
The deadliest strike was reported in the eastern town of Zellaya, where at least four people were killed and three more were injured. The agency said the attack hit the home of Ali Qassem Ahmad, the head of the local municipal council, killing him and three members of his family.
At the same time, Israeli fighter jets and drones were reported to have struck southern Lebanon, while artillery shelling hit the village of Mayfadoun. According to the same report, those attacks killed two more people.
Southern areas remain under fire as Hezbollah responds
The latest violence was not limited to one part of the country. Reporting from Beirut, Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands said Israeli strikes also hit parts of the Tyre district in the south, while Hezbollah responded to the attacks in several areas by engaging Israeli forces.
Hezbollah said it had targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers, presenting its action as a response to the continuing bombardment. This exchange underlined how unstable the ceasefire has become, with both sides still engaging militarily despite the formal truce.
The pattern suggests that even though the agreement remains officially in place, the situation on the ground continues to move dangerously close to open renewed confrontation.
Israel issues fresh displacement orders
Later, Israel issued forced displacement orders affecting 12 villages in southern Lebanon. Residents were told to stay at least one kilometre away from their homes.
Most of the villages named in the warning are located north of the Litani River, an area that is not currently under Israeli military occupation. Israel said the move was a response to a Hezbollah ceasefire violation, but the report said no credible evidence was provided to support that claim.
The latest order also marked a significant expansion in the affected zone, because it included western parts of the Bekaa Valley for the first time since the truce came into force on April 17. That widening geographic scope has increased concern that Israel’s military operations are continuing to expand despite the ceasefire framework.
Rising toll since fighting resumed
The current round of fighting resumed on March 2 after Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel, following the US and Israel’s launch of war against Iran. Since then, the conflict has again spread heavily into Lebanese territory.
According to the information provided, Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed about 2,700 people and displaced more than 1.2 million. Entire villages in southern Lebanon have been destroyed, with some comparisons being drawn to the scale of destruction seen in Gaza.
The latest deaths in Zellaya and Mayfadoun add to that toll and reinforce fears that the ceasefire is increasingly being hollowed out by repeated attacks, counterattacks and forced displacement orders.
For now, the truce remains in name, but conditions on the ground in Lebanon continue to point to a conflict that is still very much alive.