Israeli news outlets say the Israel Defense Forces have pushed deeper into southern Lebanon, launching ground operations beyond the so-called “Yellow Line” — a boundary that runs roughly 10 kilometres inside Lebanese territory.
Until now, Israeli troops had operated within the self-declared “Yellow Line”, where they have carried out large-scale demolitions even though a ceasefire has been in place since 17 April.
“The IDF has begun ground operations north of the Yellow Line in southern Lebanon,” Israel’s Kan public broadcaster wrote on X.
Haaretz, a left-leaning Israeli daily, and the news site Ynet also reported that forces had moved north of the line as part of efforts to reduce the threat from Hezbollah’s explosive drones.
The Israeli military did not immediately answer a request from AFP for comment on the reports.
Despite the truce, Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah have continued trading fire almost every day.
In southern Lebanon, several strikes hit the city of Nabatieh after what an AFP correspondent described as an unprecedented Israeli evacuation warning — coming a day after a strike in eastern Lebanon killed at least 11 people.
Hezbollah, for its part, said its fighters confronted Israeli troops attempting to advance into a town overlooking the city.
The escalation followed an order issued yesterday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructing the military to intensify attacks on Hezbollah in order to “crush” the Iran-backed group.
Avichay Adraee, the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesman, said on X that residents of the entire city “must evacuate your homes immediately and move north of the Zahrani River”.
After the warning, an AFP correspondent in Nabatieh reported airstrikes and saw smoke rising from multiple locations across the city.
Nabatieh has been largely deserted since the latest Israel-Hezbollah war began on 2 March, but it has still come under repeated strikes despite the 17 April truce.
In a statement, Lebanon’s health ministry said “yesterday’s Israeli enemy airstrike on the town of Mashghara in West Bekaa resulted in a preliminary toll of 11 martyrs, including two girls and a woman, and 15 wounded, including a child”.
The ministry added that rescuers were still removing rubble in the eastern town.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it carried out “several strikes … in the area of Mashghara” targeting “Hezbollah infrastructure sites where terrorists’ activity was identified”.
It later issued an evacuation warning for Mashghara and the nearby town of Sohmor.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported additional Israeli strikes across southern and eastern parts of the country.
According to the health ministry, an Israeli strike on Srifa in the south killed a rescuer and wounded two others from the Risala Scouts association, which is linked to the Hezbollah-allied Amal movement. The death raised the toll of rescuers killed during the war to 120.
Drone attacks
Evacuation warnings near the southern city of Tyre yesterday sparked widespread panic and prompted residents to flee the historic coastal city, an AFP correspondent reported.
The Israeli military said it had struck more than 100 Hezbollah targets across Lebanon overnight.
Hezbollah said early today that its fighters repelled an Israeli force advancing toward Zawtar al-Sharqiyah — a town that overlooks Nabatieh — after airstrikes and heavy artillery fire.
The group said it deployed drones and that its fighters were engaged in clashes with Israeli soldiers inside the town.
Mr Netanyahu said last night he had ordered “an even greater acceleration of our operations” against Hezbollah.
“It is true that they are attacking us with drones, including fibre-optic drones, but we have teams working on countermeasures and we will solve this issue … We will intensify our blows, increase our firepower, and we will crush them.”
The Israeli army said it “intercepted several explosive drones launched by the Hezbollah terrorist organization toward Israeli territory”.
“Several additional explosive drones fell within Israeli territory, adjacent to the Israel-Lebanon border,” it added, saying no injuries were reported.
Israel has repeatedly carried out strikes in Lebanon despite the truce in its war with Hezbollah, saying it is targeting the group. Hezbollah has also claimed multiple attacks on Israeli positions in southern Lebanon and northern Israel.
Lebanese authorities say Israeli strikes have killed more than 3,100 people since 2 March, when Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the wider Middle East war by attacking Israel in support of its backer Iran.
