Hezbollah Says It Is Ready for Any Israeli Land Invasion in Lebanon

 People pass by buildings damaged in an Israeli strike, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Cola, central Beirut, Lebanon September 30, 2024. (Reuters)
People pass by buildings damaged in an Israeli strike, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Cola, central Beirut, Lebanon September 30, 2024. (Reuters)
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Hezbollah Says It Is Ready for Any Israeli Land Invasion in Lebanon

 People pass by buildings damaged in an Israeli strike, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Cola, central Beirut, Lebanon September 30, 2024. (Reuters)
People pass by buildings damaged in an Israeli strike, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Cola, central Beirut, Lebanon September 30, 2024. (Reuters)

Hezbollah's deputy leader Naim Qassem, in his first public address since Israel assassinated the group's chief Hassan Nasrallah last week, said the movement is ready to confront any Israeli ground invasion of Lebanon.

Israel will not achieve its goals, he said.

"We will face any possibility and we are ready if the Israelis decide to enter by land and the resistance forces are ready for a ground engagement," he said.

Israeli forces have dealt multiple blows to Hezbollah in a two-week wave of attacks on targets in Lebanon that has eliminated several commanders. The possibility that Israel's next move might be to send ground troops and tanks over the border is on many minds.

In other developments, the Palestinian group Hamas said an Israeli airstrike killed its leader in Lebanon in the city of Tyre on Monday, and another Palestinian organization said three of its leaders died in a strike in central Beirut - the first such hit inside the capital's limits.

The killings were the latest in a wave of intensified Israeli attacks on militant targets in Lebanon, part of a conflict also stretching from the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the occupied West Bank, to Yemen, and within Israel itself.

Hamas said its leader in Lebanon, Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin was killed along with his wife, son and daughter, in a strike that targeted their house in a refugee camp in the southern city of Tyre in the early hours of Monday.

Another group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), said three of its leaders were killed in a strike that targeted Beirut's Cola district.

This was the first time Israel had struck Beirut beyond its southern suburbs in a campaign which culminated in the assassination of Nasrallah last week in a succession of heavy air strikes.

The strike against the PFLP hit the upper floor of an apartment building, Reuters witnesses said. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

The latest attacks indicated Israel has no intention of slowing down its offensive on multiple fronts even after eliminating Nasrallah, who was Iran's most powerful ally in its "Axis of Resistance" against Israeli and US influence in the region.

Israel's intensified attacks against the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and Houthi militias in Yemen have prompted fears that Middle East fighting could spin out of control and draw in Iran and the United States, Israel's main ally.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said Tehran would not leave any of Israel's "criminal acts" go unanswered. He was referring to the killing of Nasrallah and an Iranian Guard deputy commander, Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan, who died in the same strikes on Friday.

Lebanon's Health Ministry says more than 1,000 Lebanese have been killed and 6,000 wounded in the past two weeks, without specifying how many were civilians. One million people - a fifth of the population - have fled their homes, the government says.

The escalation has put Beirut on edge, with Lebanese fearful that Israel will expand its military campaign.

"There is nothing else to say or add, except God save Lebanon," Beirut resident Nawel said. "What will happen to me is the same as what can happen to anyone."



Israel Carries Out Deadly Strikes in South Lebanon Despite Truce Announced with Hezbollah

Smoke billows from southern Lebanon following an Israeli strike, as seen from Nabatieh, Lebanon, June 20, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer       TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Smoke billows from southern Lebanon following an Israeli strike, as seen from Nabatieh, Lebanon, June 20, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
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Israel Carries Out Deadly Strikes in South Lebanon Despite Truce Announced with Hezbollah

Smoke billows from southern Lebanon following an Israeli strike, as seen from Nabatieh, Lebanon, June 20, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer       TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Smoke billows from southern Lebanon following an Israeli strike, as seen from Nabatieh, Lebanon, June 20, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Israel carried out deadly strikes in south Lebanon on Saturday, hours after the US announced a renewed ceasefire in fighting that had strained a fledgling deal with Iran.

US President Donald Trump and his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian this week signed a preliminary agreement to halt the Middle East war on all fronts, including Lebanon -- a key demand of Tehran's.

But follow-up talks scheduled for Friday in Switzerland were indefinitely postponed as Israel launched a wave of strikes in Lebanon that left dozens of people dead after four of its soldiers were killed in combat, sparking a furious reaction at home.

On Friday afternoon, a US official announced a new ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah brokered by US and Qatari mediators, with Israel's ambassador to Washington saying it would respect the truce if Hezbollah did.

But on Saturday an Israeli military official said it was conducting fresh attacks against the Iran-backed movement, which it accused of having "launched more than 50 projectiles at Israeli forces in southern Lebanon" overnight.

Lebanese state media reported Israeli air raids on around 20 locations, with the country's civil defense agency saying 16 people were killed in the Nabatieh area.

The Lebanese army said an Israeli strike killed a soldier on the Kfarrumman-Nabatieh road and accused Israel of undermining efforts to restore stability.

Israel's Arabic-language military spokesperson said calm could be achieved if Hezbollah halted what she described as hostile activity and violations of agreements, adding Israel's presence in a security zone aimed to remove threats and dismantle Hezbollah infrastructure, not harm civilians.

The US-Iran understanding announced this week calls for an immediate, permanent end to military operations by the parties and their allies across multiple fronts, including Lebanon.

Israel, which was not part of those negotiations, has opposed provisions it says could constrain its campaign in Lebanon.


Gaza Health Officials Say Israeli Strikes Kill Five

Palestinians inspect a destroyed vehicle following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, 18 June 2026. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER
Palestinians inspect a destroyed vehicle following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, 18 June 2026. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER
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Gaza Health Officials Say Israeli Strikes Kill Five

Palestinians inspect a destroyed vehicle following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, 18 June 2026. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER
Palestinians inspect a destroyed vehicle following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, 18 June 2026. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER

Gaza health officials said Israeli strikes on Saturday killed five people, including four members of the same family, in the latest violence to rock the Palestinian territory despite a ceasefire.

Israel and Hamas trade near-daily accusations of truce violations and the Gaza Strip remains gripped by bloodshed as progress on permanently ending the war remains stalled.

An overnight Israeli airstrike on an apartment building in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City killed four members of the al-Safadi family, including the husband, wife and their two daughters, said the civil defense agency, a rescue service that operates under Hamas authority.

AFP quoted it as saying that the strike also injured 12 others.

Gaza City's Al-Shifa hospital confirmed receiving the bodies of four members of the al-Safadi family, including two children.

The hospital also said it had received another body following a separate Israeli drone strike near an intersection in the north of Gaza City.

When asked by AFP about the two incidents, the Israeli military did not offer an immediate response.

At least 1,012 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect on October 10 last year, according to Gaza's health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.

The Israeli army has reported five deaths in its ranks during the same period.

Restrictions imposed on media outlets and limited access in Gaza prevent AFP from independently verifying tolls or freely covering the violence there.


‘Emirate of Hebron’ Raised Again According to Smotrich’s Arrangements

The Israeli military blocks the road as Palestinians protest against settlement near Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank June 19, 2026. REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma
The Israeli military blocks the road as Palestinians protest against settlement near Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank June 19, 2026. REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma
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‘Emirate of Hebron’ Raised Again According to Smotrich’s Arrangements

The Israeli military blocks the road as Palestinians protest against settlement near Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank June 19, 2026. REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma
The Israeli military blocks the road as Palestinians protest against settlement near Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank June 19, 2026. REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma

The establishment of the “Emirate of Hebron” has been raised again after far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced on Tuesday that he had annulled the Hebron Accords and seized planning and construction powers at a Jewish and Muslim shrine in the occupied West Bank from Palestinian authorities.

The idea of “annulment” was already put forward more than a year ago but rejected by Palestinians.

The 1997 agreement gave the Palestinian Hebron municipality authority to construct and plan in the H2 area of the city, despite it being under Israeli military control.

And in what appears to be a coordinated plan, while Smotrich annulled the Hebron Accords, Likud Minister Nir Barkat brought five Hebron residents to a Knesset hearing to promote a government-backed plan to secede from the Palestinian Authority, establish an independent emirate and join regional normalization agreements.

“The dispute came to a head during a Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee hearing this week, when Barkat brought five Hebron residents promoting the initiative,” Haaretz newspaper wrote on Friday.

“The group argued they could assume responsibility for their local areas and maintain order through a model of tribal leadership,” it added.

The newspaper explained that last year, five residents of Hebron had proposed breaking away from the Palestinian Authority in an initiative for an “Emirate of Hebron.”

According to a 2025 report in The Wall Street Journal, the group sent a letter to Barkat in which they expressed support for Israel as a Jewish state and proposed the creation of a joint Israeli-West Bank industrial zone near the separation barrier.

Haaretz said Barkat presented the five Hebron residents as those who are willing to accept responsibility for the areas where their extended families live, break away from the Palestinian Authority, and establish a system of local tribal leadership.

During the discussion, the sheikhs claimed that they had the power to restore order and protect their residents.

The five sheikhs, the newspaper wrote, presented far-reaching demands to the Israeli army and security forces during the discussion. They demanded that soldiers refrain from activities against them and their people, reduce arrests, and stop searching for weapons on their families' lands.

Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli also attended the discussion, expressing full support for the initiative. According to Chikli, the emirate model is “the future of the West Bank” and the most significant alternative offered to the Palestinian Authority so far.

Chikli argued that the local tribal structure may constitute a more stable basis for a Palestinian government than the PA's institutions, which the Israeli government seeks to dismantle.

The 1997 Hebron Agreement divided the city of Hebron into two zones: H1, under Palestinian control and H2, under Israeli security control.

Palestinians controlled planning and construction in the entire city, including the Jewish Tomb of the Patriarchs and the adjoining Muslim Ibrahimi Mosque.

Hebron's Old City is recognized as a Palestinian World Heritage site.

Hundreds of Jewish settlers live among tens of thousands of Palestinians in parts of the ancient city that are under Israeli security control.

Annulling the Hebron Accords means Israelis would again control the H2 area of the city, including religious affairs.

Smotrich said: “This is much more than a planning step, it is a step... of practical sovereignty, of governance.”

The Palestinian mayor of Hebron, Yousef Al-Jabari, called Smotrich's announcement a “racist decision aimed at stripping the Hebron municipality of its powers.”

He told Israel’s i24NEWS channel that the Palestinian people remain entirely capable of choosing their own leadership, despite active Israeli interference.

“We have a municipality that democratically elects its president and members. Hebron is ruled by Palestinian legitimacy and no one else will rule it,” he added.

On Friday, Haaretz said the Israeli military has rejected these estimates outright. Security sources who spoke to Haaretz said most of the figures presented as influential lack public status in Hebron, and are not recognized as the city's power centers.

Other sources warned that the very fact of holding the Knesset debate and granting official legitimacy to a model of tribal leadership supported by Israel could create the impression that Israel is trying to dismantle the existing Palestinian leadership by appointing cronies from collaborating clans.

Such a move, they warn, could actually strengthen support for extremist factions and deepen instability in the West Bank.

“When ministers bring the sheikhs to the Knesset, give them an official platform and present them as a governmental alternative to the Palestinian Authority, it can no longer be treated as just a public relations exercise – it has direct consequences on the ground,” said a security source who spoke to Haaretz.