Blasts Heard as Lebanese State Media Says Israel Strikes Beirut Suburbs

The rubble of a damaged building after an Israeli strike in the Chiyah area, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, 25 March 2026. (EPA)
The rubble of a damaged building after an Israeli strike in the Chiyah area, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, 25 March 2026. (EPA)
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Blasts Heard as Lebanese State Media Says Israel Strikes Beirut Suburbs

The rubble of a damaged building after an Israeli strike in the Chiyah area, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, 25 March 2026. (EPA)
The rubble of a damaged building after an Israeli strike in the Chiyah area, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, 25 March 2026. (EPA)

Lebanese media reported an Israeli strike hit Beirut's southern suburbs early Friday, as AFP correspondents heard several explosions from the Hezbollah stronghold that Israel has repeatedly struck since war erupted this month.

AFPTV footage showed smoke billowing from the area after the raid.

Lebanon's official National News Agency reported that "enemy aircraft" carried out a raid on Tahouitet al-Ghadir in the southern suburbs at dawn.

Israel has previously issued sweeping evacuation warnings for the area, but provided no specific warning in advance of Friday's strike.

The usually densely populated area has largely emptied of residents since the hostilities erupted, and it was unclear whether there were any casualties.

Hours later, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee called on residents of Sejoud village in southern Lebanon to evacuate to the north of Zahrani river, warning of an imminent attack against Hezbollah.

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on March 2 when Tehran-backed Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel to avenge the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Israel has since been bombing Lebanon, mainly in areas where Hezbollah has long held sway, and has sent in ground troops in a push to establish a buffer zone in south Lebanon.

Hezbollah said its fighters kept up its attacks on Israeli troops in south Lebanon early Friday.

On Thursday, official Lebanese media reported deadly Israeli raids in the country's south, and Hezbollah claimed more than 90 attacks on Israeli targets inside Lebanon and across the border.

Also Thursday, Israel's military said two soldiers were killed in south Lebanon, while Israeli emergency services said a rocket fired from Lebanon killed a man in northern Israel's Nahariya area.

Israeli strikes since March 2 have killed at least 1,116 people including 121 children, according to Lebanese authorities, while more than one million people have been displaced.



Israel Military Says Soldier Killed in southern Lebanon

Smoke rises following an Israeli strike on the southern village of Nabatieh on May 24, 2026. (Photo by Abbas Fakih / AFP)
Smoke rises following an Israeli strike on the southern village of Nabatieh on May 24, 2026. (Photo by Abbas Fakih / AFP)
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Israel Military Says Soldier Killed in southern Lebanon

Smoke rises following an Israeli strike on the southern village of Nabatieh on May 24, 2026. (Photo by Abbas Fakih / AFP)
Smoke rises following an Israeli strike on the southern village of Nabatieh on May 24, 2026. (Photo by Abbas Fakih / AFP)

Israel said on Monday a soldier was killed in southern Lebanon, taking to 23 the number of its troops killed in the war with Iran-backed Hezbollah.

A military statement named him as 19-year-old Sergeant Nehoray Leizer of the 601st Combat Engineering Battalion, who "fell in combat in southern Lebanon".

During the incident in which Leizer was killed, "an additional soldier was severely injured", the Israeli military said separately on Telegram.

A total of 24 Israelis have been killed in the conflict, 23 soldiers and one civilian contractor, since hostilities began on March 2.


Hezbollah Chief Says Hopes for Iran-US Deal and That It Includes Lebanon

A poster of Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem (L) is displayed near another of the group's late leader Hassan Nasrallah outside shelters at the Imam Ali Housing Compound, where displaced Lebanese and Syrian refugees take refuge by the city of Hermel in Lebanon's northeastern Bekaa valley on February 4, 2026. (AFP)
A poster of Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem (L) is displayed near another of the group's late leader Hassan Nasrallah outside shelters at the Imam Ali Housing Compound, where displaced Lebanese and Syrian refugees take refuge by the city of Hermel in Lebanon's northeastern Bekaa valley on February 4, 2026. (AFP)
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Hezbollah Chief Says Hopes for Iran-US Deal and That It Includes Lebanon

A poster of Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem (L) is displayed near another of the group's late leader Hassan Nasrallah outside shelters at the Imam Ali Housing Compound, where displaced Lebanese and Syrian refugees take refuge by the city of Hermel in Lebanon's northeastern Bekaa valley on February 4, 2026. (AFP)
A poster of Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem (L) is displayed near another of the group's late leader Hassan Nasrallah outside shelters at the Imam Ali Housing Compound, where displaced Lebanese and Syrian refugees take refuge by the city of Hermel in Lebanon's northeastern Bekaa valley on February 4, 2026. (AFP)

Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem expressed hope Sunday for an agreement between Iran and the United States and that Lebanon, where Israel and the Iran-backed group are at war, would be part of its terms.

Hezbollah and Israel have clashed since the group drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2 by firing rockets at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran's supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes.

Iranian officials have said an understanding with Washington to halt the regional war will include Lebanon.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that US President Donald Trump had reaffirmed his support for Israel's right "to defend itself against threats on all fronts, including in Lebanon".

"God willing, this agreement will be finalized and there are signs of its completion, and accordingly that we too will be among those included in this agreement -- an agreement of a full cessation of hostilities," Qassem said in a televised address broadcast on Hezbollah's Al-Manar television channel.

The speech marked the anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from south Lebanon in 2000 after around two decades of occupation and following persistent pressure from Hezbollah.

Qassem said that Iran, which has provided Hezbollah with funding and weapons for decades, "is on top" and would emerge from the regional war "with its head high".

Expectations of a Middle East deal come as Lebanon prepares for a fourth round of direct talks with Israel in Washington on June 2 and 3, preceded by a meeting between military delegations at the Pentagon on May 29.

- 'Existential threat' -

Qassem again repeated his group's rejection of direct talks, charging that key Israel ally Washington "is not an honest broker".

"Direct negotiations are completely unacceptable and are a pure gain for Israel," he said, addressing Lebanese authorities who last year committed to disarming Hezbollah and then banned its military activities after the latest war erupted.

"Abandon the direct negotiations and do not give to America so that it gives to Israel... Return to the national understanding," he added.

"Don't be with them and stab us in the back. You won't gain anything, and it's better for you to stand with your country."

Despite heavy losses in 2023-2024 hostilities with Israel and the current war, Hezbollah refuses to disarm, arguing that its weapons are an internal Lebanese matter and not up for discussion in Washington.

"Disarmament means stripping Lebanon of its defensive capability and the capability of the resistance (Hezbollah) and this people, paving the way for annihilation," he said.

"Disarmament is annihilation and we cannot accept it."

A state monopoly on weapons demanded by Lebanese authorities "at this stage is aimed at targeting the resistance and is an Israeli project" whose objective is to "annihilate the resistance".

"All the facts prove that we and our people face an existential threat," Qassem said.

"We will not bow, even if the whole world turns against us."


Israeli Strikes Pound South, East Lebanon

 Plumes of smoke billow from southern Lebanon following Israeli strikes, as seen from Marjeyoun, Lebanon May 24, 2026. (Reuters)
Plumes of smoke billow from southern Lebanon following Israeli strikes, as seen from Marjeyoun, Lebanon May 24, 2026. (Reuters)
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Israeli Strikes Pound South, East Lebanon

 Plumes of smoke billow from southern Lebanon following Israeli strikes, as seen from Marjeyoun, Lebanon May 24, 2026. (Reuters)
Plumes of smoke billow from southern Lebanon following Israeli strikes, as seen from Marjeyoun, Lebanon May 24, 2026. (Reuters)

Israeli strikes hit south and east Lebanon on Sunday, state media reported, a day after 11 people were killed in a single raid on the south despite a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war.

Saturday's strike in Sir al-Gharbiyeh "resulted in a massacre whose final toll is 11 dead including a child and six women, and nine wounded including four children and a woman," Lebanon's health ministry said in a statement.

Israel's military has continued to strike what it says are Hezbollah targets in Lebanon despite a ceasefire that began on April 17 and that was recently extended for several weeks.

The Iran-backed group has also maintained attacks on Israeli targets in southern Lebanon and across the border, including firing rockets on Sunday at Israeli troops operating on Lebanese territory.

Lebanon's official National News Agency reported Israeli strikes on multiple locations in south and east Lebanon on Sunday, in some cases causing casualties.

Some of the raids came before the Israeli military issued two evacuation warnings covering more than a dozen villages in Lebanon's south and the eastern Bekaa valley.

An AFP correspondent saw large clouds of smoke rising after strikes on the south's Nabatieh and Zawtar al-Sharqiyah.

Lebanon's civil defense agency said early on Sunday that its regional facility in Nabatieh had been destroyed by an overnight Israeli strike.

An AFP photographer saw civil defense personnel recovering equipment and using a stretcher to remove oxygen bottles from the rubble.

The Israeli army did not immediately provide any comment on the strike in response to an inquiry from AFP's Jerusalem bureau.

- Iran -

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah, whom the US sanctioned this week, said Sunday that "major transformations are taking place in the region", amid anticipation that a US-Iranian agreement to end the Middle East war was close.

Iran "has made its agreement with the United States conditional on stopping the war in Lebanon", he said, according to a statement.

On Saturday, Hezbollah said its chief Naim Qassem had received a message from Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, saying Iran's latest proposal through Pakistani mediators emphasized "the demand to include Lebanon" in the broader ceasefire.

Fadlallah said that "the war will not just stop in Iran, but across the whole region, particularly in Lebanon", urging Lebanese authorities to "take advantage of this regional umbrella... which will have repercussions on us".

Lebanese authorities recently began landmark direct talks with Israel under US auspices, and have insisted the discussions must be independent from the Iran-US negotiations.

Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2 with rocket fire at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran's supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes.

Under the terms of the ceasefire published by Washington, Israel reserves the right to act against "planned, imminent or ongoing attacks".

Israeli troops who invaded Lebanon are also operating inside an Israeli-occupied "yellow line" running around 10 kilometers (six miles) deep along Lebanon's southern border.