BEIRUT — A newly minted ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, brokered by international mediators to halt months of escalating regional warfare, was pushed to the brink of collapse on Saturday as a surge of deadly airstrikes and fierce cross-border fighting left dozens dead.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported that at least 28 people were killed across the country on Saturday alone. The casualties followed a wave of Israeli airstrikes and drone attacks that pummelled multiple locations in southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley.
The spike in violence occurred less than 24 hours after the United States, Qatar, and Iran successfully pushed the warring parties into a renewed truce. The diplomatic breakthrough followed a week of intense combat that had frozen high-level security talks.
Claims of Ceasefire Violations
The Israeli military defended its operations, asserting that the airstrikes were an emergency response to a massive, coordinated breach of the truce by the Iran-backed militant group. According to an Israeli military official, Hezbollah launched more than 50 projectiles overnight at Israeli forces operating inside southern Lebanon.
”Israel will not tolerate attacks on our soldiers or on our territory, and it will exact a very heavy price from Hezbollah for these attacks,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. Tel Aviv confirmed that five of its soldiers had been killed in southern Lebanon within the past 48 hours.
Hezbollah flatly rejected the accusation, countering that its rocket fire was a defensive reaction to blatant Israeli incursions. The group claimed that Israeli ground forces attempted an overnight infiltration of the strategic Ali al-Taher hill area. The high ground overlooks the city of Nabatiyeh, a key stronghold that Israeli troops have repeatedly attempted to capture.
Hezbollah fighters engaged the advancing troops, which they claimed triggered the sweeping Israeli retaliatory airstrikes both inside and outside Israel’s declared operational zone. Senior Hezbollah officials warned that continued Israeli aggression “will not pass without a response” and urged Washington to exert immediate pressure on Tel Aviv to halt its operations.
Defensive Patrols vs. Freedom of Movement
The Israeli military, which continues to occupy a wide belt of territory in southern Lebanon, stated that its forces have received updated political directives to maintain the ceasefire. Officials insisted that troops are no longer conducting proactive, offensive strikes but are instead operating strictly defensively within what Israel defines as its “forward defense zone”—a designated security corridor encompassing dozens of border villages.
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However, Hezbollah leadership made it clear that they will not accept any permanent Israeli presence or unilateral enforcement zones on Lebanese soil. A senior Hezbollah official stated that the group would deny Israel “freedom of movement” in occupied areas, emphasizing that armed resistance remains legitimate under international eyes as long as foreign troops remain across the border.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) reported a dramatic surge in hostilities just as the truce was meant to solidify. UN monitors recorded hundreds of projectile trajectories alongside dozens of airspace violations, warning that the unstable security landscape is preventing hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians from safely returning to their homes.
