# Israel launches fresh airstrikes in southern Lebanon as fragile truce comes under strain
Israel carried out another wave of airstrikes in southern Lebanon on the event date, deepening pressure on the ceasefire with Hezbollah and widening fears that the long-running cross-border conflict could escalate again.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that Israeli jets struck several locations in multiple waves, including Mount Safi, the town of Jbaa, the Zefta Valley, and the area between Azza and Rumin Arki. The report said homes were damaged in the attacks. Israel’s military said on X that it had targeted several Hezbollah-linked sites, including what it described as a special operations training compound used by the group’s elite Radwan Force, along with other buildings and a rocket-launching site.
The strikes land in a tense period for Lebanon. The United States has been urging Beirut and Tel Aviv to broaden their contacts, and only days before the latest attacks the two sides dispatched civilian envoys to a military committee charged with monitoring the ceasefire. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said on Friday that Lebanon had adopted the option of negotiations with Israel and that talks were intended to stop what he called continued attacks on the country.
The current ceasefire was brokered by Washington in 2024 and ended more than a year of direct clashes between Israel and Hezbollah. But the truce has not held in a durable way. Al Jazeera reported that Israel has continued to strike Lebanon almost daily, while Lebanese anger has mounted over repeated violations of the agreement. A UN report released in November said at least 127 civilians, including children, had been killed in Lebanon since the ceasefire took effect. UN officials have warned that the strikes amount to war crimes.
The latest round of airstrikes also follows a further spike in tensions last week, when Israel bombed Beirut’s southern suburbs and killed Hezbollah’s top military commander, Haytham Ali Tabtabai. Hezbollah has not yet responded publicly, according to the evidence packet, but the group remains under pressure after last year’s conflict.
At the center of the dispute is what each side says the ceasefire should accomplish. Israel accuses Lebanon of failing to force Hezbollah to give up its weapons across the country. Lebanon denies that it is not doing enough. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said last week that Beirut wanted the ceasefire monitoring mechanism to play a stronger role in verifying Israeli claims that Hezbollah is rearming, as well as the work of the Lebanese army in dismantling the group’s infrastructure.
For now, the air campaign itself appears to be the main signal. Israel says it is hitting armed sites tied to Hezbollah. Lebanon says the strikes are illegal and still causing civilian damage. With diplomatic engagement just beginning to widen and the military balance still unstable, the latest attacks show how easily the truce can be shaken by the next round of airpower.
