Theme: Lebanon

Israeli air strikes and artillery fire hit the outskirts of the town of Aita al-Jabal, in southern Lebanon’s Bint Jbeil district, according to the Lebanese national news agency. Israeli forces also opened machine-gun fire toward the entrance of Kunin, a town in the same district.

France has opened a judicial investigation into a war crimes complaint over an Israeli strike on a residential building in Lebanon, according to the complainant’s lawyer, Clemence Bectarte, speaking to AFP. French-Lebanese artist Ali Cherri, whose parents were killed in the Beirut strike in 2024, filed the complaint as a civil party this year with the International Federation for Human Rights. The crimes against humanity unit of the Paris Judicial Court appointed two investigating judges to the case, a decision the lawyer called “a first.”

Lebanon's Labor Minister Mohammad Haidar, who was appointed by Hezbollah, visited Syria on Monday with three other Lebanese ministers, the first time a member of the group has been formally welcomed in Damascus since the fall of the Assad regime. The delegation, led by Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri, discussed refugee returns, border security, education and bilateral cooperation. Haidar said the trip is ministerial work with no partisan link.

The French judiciary opened a judicial investigation into a war crimes complaint over an Israeli strike on a residential building in Lebanon, according to a lawyer who spoke to AFP on Tuesday. The crimes against humanity unit of the Paris Judicial Court appointed two investigating judges to the case, a move the lawyer described as a first. The complaint, seen by AFP, concerns the November 26, 2024 bombing that killed seven civilians, including Cherri's parents, aged 87 and 77, in a 12-story building in central Beirut; three floors were destroyed.

Israel has asked the Lebanese government to deploy troops to set up roadblocks in areas where Hezbollah operatives live, to prevent the group from joining a new war with Iran, according to an Israeli broadcaster cited by The Times of Israel. The request was relayed by US mediators, with the warning that fighting in Lebanon will flare up again if Hezbollah attacks Israel.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), created in 1978, has around 7,500 peacekeepers from 46 countries and a mandate until December 31, 2026, with personnel due to leave over the following year and their positions gradually handed over to the Lebanese army, according to RT. The decision to end the mission followed pressure from the United States and Israel, which accuse the force of failing to contain Hezbollah, and a resident of the south told RT that UNIFIL failed to protect local residents but he warned that the absence of peacekeepers would create a “security vacuum” that Israel would seek to exploit.

Lebanon’s agriculture minister, Nizar Hani, said Israeli attacks have caused over US$1 billion in agricultural losses in the country and damaged nearly a quarter of the farmland, or about 56,000 hectares. According to the minister, the cumulative damaged agricultural area reached 49,564 hectares, around 22% of the farmland, mostly in the South and Nabatieh governorates.

Israeli artillery shelling hit Sarbine, Al-Mansouri, Kafr Tibnit, Al-Qantara, Beit Yahoun, Bani Hayyan and Al-Qusair in southern Lebanon, according to field sources. Israeli forces also set off an explosion in the town of Ainatha, according to the Lebanese news agency.

The Catholic priest Samir Daou was murdered in his home and stabbed more than 20 times, and robbed of his personal possessions, including his wallet, car and clothes, according to the Jerusalem Post. Daou's family found his body inside a house he owned in Ain Jrain, in the Jbeil district, with visible traces of blood, L'Orient Today reported. The killing sparked sectarian outrage and calls for the deportation of Syrians, according to Lebanese media reports.

A Lebanese military court charged 13 people linked to Hezbollah with trafficking explosives, amid growing pressure on the Iran-backed group to disarm, according to Al Jazeera. The seized vehicle was carrying 780 kg (1,720 pounds) of explosives, including 250 kg (550 pounds) of TNT and 250 kg (550 pounds) of C-4, according to judicial officials. Hezbollah acknowledged owning the explosives and said they were intended for use against Israel, which continues to occupy large parts of southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah is unlikely to join a war between the United States and Iran if the two countries resume military operations against each other, unless Iran’s leadership faces an existential threat, according to a report by the United Arab Emirates state-owned outlet The National cited by the Jerusalem Post. According to Lebanese security personnel briefed on the group’s activities, Hezbollah spent at least three months preparing for a resumption of hostilities with Israel after receiving an infusion of cash from Iran.

A Lebanese military court has charged 13 people it says are linked to Hezbollah with trafficking in explosives. The individuals were charged with offenses including possessing weapons, undermining state security and forming illegal associations, Lebanese state media reported. The vehicle seized at the Dahr al-Baydar checkpoint had been carrying 780kg (1,720 pounds) of explosives, including 250kg (550 pounds) of TNT and 250kg (550 pounds) of C-4 plastic explosives, according to judicial officials. Hezbollah later acknowledged that the explosives belonged to the group and said they were intended for use against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, according to Arab News.

Israeli troops have intensified attacks in southern Lebanon, blowing up homes and other structures while carrying out artillery shelling and machine-gun fire in several areas, according to the Lebanese National News Agency (NNA), cited by TRT World. Israeli forces carried out extensive machine-gun fire over the towns of Khiam and Qantara and set homes on fire in Qantara, according to the NNA. On Wednesday, Israeli forces bulldozed, shelled and demolished homes across southern Lebanon, with drones over Beirut and its southern suburbs, in the latest violation of a US-mediated framework agreement, according to the NNA, as reported by Anadolu Agency.

A judge at a Lebanese military court charged 13 people over a truck carrying explosives belonging to Hezbollah that authorities seized earlier this month, state media reported. Two of the defendants were arrested when the shipment was seized and are in custody. The others remain at large and were charged in absentia, five of them listed only by nicknames. The truck was stopped at a checkpoint on the main highway linking Beirut with the eastern Bekaa Valley and was carrying 780 kilograms of explosives, including 250 kilograms of TNT and 250 kilograms of C-4, according to judicial officials.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said on Thursday that there had been no progress on the central issues in talks with Israel — a ceasefire, withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), border demarcation in southern Lebanon and prisoner releases — a week after the latest round of US-mediated talks, according to the Times of Israel.

Israeli aircraft flew at low altitude and dropped thermal balloons over southern Lebanon on Wednesday, Lebanon's National News Agency reported. The Lebanese army had previously warned that the balloons pose a threat to citizens because of their explosive and incendiary contents, urging residents not to approach or touch them since they are prone to exploding.

Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem rejected on Wednesday calls to disarm the Lebanese group under the June framework agreement brokered by the United States with Israel, according to Middle East Eye. “The resistance continues and will confront any aggression against it; there is no room for discussion regarding the surrender of its weapons,” Qassem said in a statement, according to the outlet.

Israeli artillery was shelling the town of al-Mansouri in southern Lebanon's Tyre district, according to Lebanon's National News Agency, as reported by the Middle East Eye.

The Joe Biden and Donald Trump administrations repeatedly asked SpaceX to turn its Starlink service on or off in various countries, the Jerusalem Post reported. Under Biden, the requests included switching off the service to prevent Iranian proxy militias in Yemen and Lebanon from using it to communicate, and activating it to provide internet inside Iran and in Ukraine to support its military. The Trump administration also discussed with Musk and SpaceX getting Starlink terminals into Iran after US-Israeli strikes there in June 2025 and again in February 2026, the Times of Israel reported.

Israel carried out a series of air strikes and explosions in several areas of southern Lebanon on Wednesday, according to Lebanon’s state National News Agency (NNA), cited by Middle East Eye.

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on a podcast that Israel should annex the territory it occupies in Gaza and Lebanon so that they “truly feel the cost of their mistake”, according to the Middle East Eye. According to the outlet, he said the annexation should go “at least up to the lines we’re currently holding” and that, if Hezbollah attacks again, it would go “all the way to Beirut” and, if they attack again, “even beyond that”.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is most likely to begin withdrawing from the UN-patrolled so-called Blue Line zone on December 31, 2026. The mission has 7,565 peacekeepers from 46 countries, according to DW. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam warned of the need to “avert the vacuum that UNIFIL's withdrawal could create, were it to take place without agreement on a new international force to replace it”.

A Lebanese judge summoned two Hezbollah officials over a seized explosives shipment, and Lebanese security agencies are working to locate them and take them into custody, according to a judicial official cited by The Times of Israel, after Hezbollah admitted the explosives belonged to it.

Lebanon rejects US-backed proposals for its troops to co-ordinate directly with the Israeli army, according to The National, ahead of Tuesday's round in Florida — Lebanese officials describe the talks as technical, to repeat the demand for a full Israeli withdrawal from the south, according to the same outlet.

A draft program seen by Reuters has Qatar building two gas-fired power plants within three years and QatarEnergy supplying the gas under a 20-year liquefied natural gas (LNG) contract, with private financing in place of Lebanese public money, according to OilPrice. The program includes two 825-megawatt combined-cycle plants, one at Deir Ammar in the north and one at Zahrani in the south.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz declared over the weekend that troops would not withdraw from the areas they currently control in southern Lebanon and warned the military could advance toward Nabatieh and the Litani River if Hezbollah launches further attacks. Katz claimed that more than 60 villages and 23,000 homes had been destroyed in an area of roughly 700 square km under Israeli control and that around 200,000 residents had been displaced, according to RT.

Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun, told French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot that, if extending the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) proves impossible, the country welcomes any arrangement that ensures an international presence in the south, prevents a vacuum and avoids placing the Lebanese army in direct contact with the Israeli army, according to The Times of Israel. Barrot’s two-day visit to Beirut was aimed at discussing mechanisms for an international presence in the south, the scene of repeated conflicts between Israel and Hezbollah.

Iran’s foreign minister voiced support for Lebanon’s right to defend its sovereignty and national security against Israeli aggression during a meeting with his Lebanese counterpart in Baghdad, according to the Iranian Mehr News Agency.

Lebanon will send a military delegation to a US-backed trilateral meeting with Israel in Tampa, Florida, on Tuesday, President Joseph Aoun said on Saturday. In a statement from the presidency, Aoun said the delegation would present Lebanon’s demands for an end to Israeli escalation and push for outcomes in line with the US-brokered framework agreement reached in June. Aoun also called for the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, Unifil, to be extended through 2027.

Aoun assured Rubio that Lebanese security forces are fully carrying out their duties in confiscating illicit arms in the country, according to Al Jazeera. In the Thursday call, the matter at hand was a truck carrying 780kg of explosives intercepted on the highway between Beirut and the Bekaa Valley, a shipment Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah acknowledged as linked to the group and said was intended for operations against Israel.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Thursday about the seizure of hundreds of kilograms of explosives from Hezbollah, according to the Jerusalem Post. Rubio urged Aoun to hold accountable those who ordered, financed and directed the shipment and said that returning the explosives to Hezbollah “is out of the question.” Aoun asked Rubio to press Israel to halt attacks on southern Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Presidency in a statement on X cited by Middle East Eye.

Iran instructed Hezbollah to raise its level of military readiness for a possible confrontation, according to Lebanese security and military sources cited by the Emirati site Erem News, in a report by The Jerusalem Post. All full-time Hezbollah members who receive monthly salaries were summoned, with the caveat that the directions were only preparations for a near-term scenario, with no final decision to go to war. Over the past two weeks, Hezbollah launched at least three drones and intelligence-gathering devices toward the security zone in southern Lebanon, according to Israeli Army Radio. Israel tried to intercept all three items and managed to bring down only one, according to the report in Hebrew media reproduced by The Cradle.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened to seize more territory in southern Lebanon, in the areas of Nabatieh and the Litani River, if Hezbollah joins an Iranian attack, during a visit to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)’s buffer zone. “If Hezbollah joins Iran in an attack on Israel, it will be dealt a heavy blow and lose additional territory in southern Lebanon, in the areas of Nabatieh and the Litani [River], which will become part of a permanent Israeli security zone — the IDF is prepared to launch a [new expanded] invasion,” he said. Katz also said that “more than 1 million Shiites will become displaced in Lebanon.”

Israeli artillery struck Mansouri and Majdal Zoun in the western sector of southern Lebanon, according to the Lebanese state news agency NNA in a text republished by Anadolu Ajansı. Shelling also hit the outskirts of Haddatha, Baraachit, Shaqra and Wadi al-Salouqi, as well as the Al-Araish area between Haris and Haddatha, with no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

Lebanese forces seized 500 kilograms of explosives with metal balls and nails from a vehicle at a checkpoint in Dahr al-Baidar in the Bekaa Valley and arrested two individuals connected to Hezbollah, according to the Jerusalem Post. Lebanon's justice minister questioned whether the explosives were for internal use or to create new pretexts to plunge Lebanon into new wars, according to MTV Lebanon, cited by the Jerusalem Post. Hezbollah announced on Tuesday $14,000 in compensation for displaced people, and Lebanese lawmakers began questioning where the funds are coming from.

Sources told the Lebanese outlet Al-Modon that Hezbollah took advantage of the extended ceasefire to rebuild its military capabilities in southern Lebanon, both south and north of the Litani River, according to The Jerusalem Post. The same sources linked the rebuild to the seizure of a truck carrying hundreds of kilograms of explosives, including TNT and C4, and said the group uses the material for first-person view (FPV) drones, whose payload has grown from 2.5 kg to between 4 and 6 kg.

A blast caused by unexploded ordnance in northern Israel, near the Lebanese border, injured approximately 20 people, according to Al Jazeera. Israel’s Magen David Adom said paramedics were treating eight casualties in serious and moderate condition, as well as several additional casualties in mild condition, after the explosion, which police said occurred near the community of Neot Mordechai. The Jerusalem Post reported 12 people wounded, including two in serious condition, according to initial reports.

EU foreign ministers adopted on Monday a decision establishing a new support mission in Lebanon aimed at advising the country’s military and internal security forces, according to Reuters, in a text republished by The Jerusalem Post. According to the Council of the EU, the mission will have an initial mandate of three years. The mission will advise and assist the Lebanese armed forces and internal security forces to strengthen territorial control, border security and also internal security, Kaja Kallas said, in remarks cited by Anadolu and carried by the Middle East Monitor. Kallas said the mission would not serve as a replacement for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and that there cannot be a security vacuum when UNIFIL leaves Lebanon.

A retired Lebanese soldier was killed on Sunday by Israeli artillery fire while tending his land during the annual olive harvest in southern Lebanon, according to the Lebanese army. The Lebanese army identified him as Ali Abdul Hassan Sweidan and said he was directly targeted while inspecting his property in Yater, in Bint Jbeil district.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said, according to TASS, that the death toll since the start of the armed escalation on March 2 has risen to 4,387, with 12,424 wounded. In the south of the country, two men were killed in the Bint Jbeil district during the annual olive harvest, and the Lebanese army blamed Israeli tank fire and called the attacks a flagrant breach of existing agreements, according to Lebanese state media and local authorities.

Lebanese forces seized hundreds of kilograms of explosives from a vehicle at a checkpoint in Dahr al-Baidar in the Bekaa Valley late last week, according to The Jerusalem Post. A judicial source told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that 250 kilograms of TNT-type explosives and 250 kilograms of C4 were seized and that one of the suspects was the son of a Hezbollah official. Lebanon's justice minister said the disarmament of illegal weapons is an irreversible path and will accelerate, according to the newspaper.

The Council for a Secure America ranked Kuwait as the Middle Eastern country most likely to join the Abraham Accords, followed by Lebanon and Syria, according to the Jerusalem Post, in a Media Line text. The “Expansion Opportunities: Middle East Analysis” report of October 8 assessed nine Muslim-majority countries without formal diplomatic relations with Israel. Lebanon placed second after signing a US-brokered “Trilateral Framework” in June; Syria placed third after talks accelerated post-Assad.

Israeli warplanes carried out two airstrikes on the town of Mansouri in southern Lebanon, according to the Mehr News Agency, which describes the action as a ceasefire violation.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are investigating a possible ground or air intrusion into northern Israel, Army Radio reported, according to The Jerusalem Post, with the Northern Command deploying checkpoints in the area. The earlier hostile aircraft infiltration alert occurred in the area of Arab al-Aramshe, triggered by a suspected drone launch from Lebanon.

An Israeli attack wounded six people in northeast Lebanon on Friday, near the border with Syria, and Israel said it targeted a “Syrian terrorist” who planned attacks against Israel. The Israeli military said it struck Yusuf Ali al-Hassoun, who, according to Tel Aviv, operated under the direction of the Iranian regime.

The European Union supports extending the mandate of UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Thursday, according to AFP, in a text published by Türkiye Today. Kallas said she expected EU foreign ministers to formally establish the new mission on Monday, October 12. The EU's new military mission in Lebanon is expected to have a permanent component of around 100 personnel, according to Rapporteur.

The Israeli military announced on Thursday the death of Capt. Eliav Haim Tzapalamus, 21, from Haifa, a combat engineering officer in the 603rd Battalion, 7th Brigade, in southern Lebanon, according to the Jerusalem Post. According to the military, he was killed when a Humvee flipped during operational activity in the Litani sector. Three other soldiers were lightly injured, were evacuated to a hospital and their families were notified.

Syrian general Bassam al-Hassan, who ran Syria’s chemical weapons programme and was a senior advisor to former President Bashar al-Assad, has been living in Lebanon under US protection since Assad’s government was toppled in late 2024, according to a joint NPR and BBC investigation released on Thursday, because he has provided information about the abduction of American journalist Austin Tice.

Bassam al-Hassan is being bankrolled and protected by American and Lebanese authorities, according to a BBC investigation. He was offered residency, protection and help securing his living needs in return for information, primarily about journalist Austin Tice. Officials from two branches of Syria’s new government told the BBC they want Hassan back to face trial — but that the American authorities want him kept in Lebanon.

Hezbollah members remain present in the pilot zones of Froun, Srifa and Zawtar al-Gharbiyah, south of Nabatiya, posing as civilians, according to KAN, as reported by the Jerusalem Post. Israeli officials say the pilot program — under which Israeli troops would withdraw so the Lebanese Armed Forces could take over operations against Hezbollah — failed, according to the Jerusalem Post.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said one of its positions near Kfar Shouba, on the Blue Line in the eastern sector, was hit by small-arms fire on the morning of the 7th and that there were no casualties. The peacekeeping force said the shots hit a post on the Israeli border, according to Al Jazeera.

Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem declared that the liberation of southern Lebanon is within sight and that Israeli forces will not manage to maintain what he called their illegal occupation, whatever the time, according to the Tehran Times. Iranian general Ali Abdollahi said the 7th of October turned the Resistance Front’s defensive strategy into an offensive one and accelerated the decline of what he called the usurping Zionist regime.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said on Sunday that Lebanon wants a new chapter in relations with Iran based on mutual respect and non-interference, according to Middle East Eye. Salam said he had accepted a meeting requested by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and that he prefers Iran to name a new ambassador.

Israeli air strikes hit two areas in southern Lebanon, according to Middle East Eye, citing Al Jazeera. The strikes targeted the Wadi al-Hujair area and the outskirts of the town of Kfar Tebnit in the Nabatieh district, with no casualties reported so far.

The village of Mansouri, occupied by Israel and perched a few kilometres from the coastal city of Tyre, in Lebanon, is slowly disappearing, day after day, according to Middle East Eye. The Israeli army presents the village as an operational stronghold of Hezbollah, and it was initially located outside the “Yellow Line”. Today the Yellow Line cuts through Mansouri and divides it in two, although officially only in part.

Israeli artillery struck the town of Al-Khiam in southeastern Lebanon, according to the country's state-run news agency, in a report republished by Dawn. An explosion was also heard in the town of Houla near the Israeli border, in the country's southeast, according to Al Jazeera.

About 400 inmates at Roumieh prison went on hunger strike on September 12 against the suspension of the general amnesty law, according to Al Jazeera. Lawyer Mohammed Sablouh told Al Jazeera that about 400 prisoners have been on strike for more than two weeks and ambulances enter daily to take them away because their condition is dire. Implementation of the law was suspended on September 10 after an appeal to the Constitutional Council seeking to overturn the law, according to Ahram Online.

Lebanon’s National News Agency reported on Tuesday that ongoing Israeli attacks destroyed homes and water wells and severed parts of the water network in the southern Lebanese town of Mansouri, according to the Middle East Eye.

Israel’s military set off a significant explosion in the southern Lebanese village of Mansouri, Tyre district, on Monday, according to Arab News, citing Lebanese state media and Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondents. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) attributed the explosion to Israeli occupation forces, according to the same report. Israel’s military said it had completed the operation in Mansouri, where it dismantled more than 600 structures and eight underground routes, according to Arab News.

Southern Lebanon suffered a series of Israeli airstrikes early Monday, alongside ground attacks and multiple explosions, according to the Mehr News Agency. Israeli warplanes bombed the areas of Mifdoun, Kfar Tebnit, Mansouri, Haddatha, Haris, Khiam, Mays al-Jabal, Qantara and Wadi Zebqin, still according to the agency. A large plume of smoke was recorded after a reported attack in Bint Jbeil, in southern Lebanon, according to the Middle East Eye.

Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said on Sunday that Israel had been unable to break the group, at a ceremony marking two years since Israel killed the movement's longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah, according to Middle East Eye. Qassem said Hezbollah had demonstrated that Israel and its soldiers “were unable to achieve their goals to break the resistance, end its existence, consolidate the Israeli occupation and establish settlements in Lebanon”, in an address televised at a gathering in Beirut's southern suburbs. Qassem said “Palestine and the liberation of our land remains our priority”, at the ceremony marking the anniversary of the deaths of Nasrallah and Safieddine, according to Mehr News.

Israeli fighter jets resumed attacks on Saturday against mountainous areas near the Lebanese towns of Jezzine and Nabatieh, north of the Litani River, according to TASS, citing the outlet Janoubia. The airstrikes targeted underground shelters, command posts and Hezbollah depots on the heights of Jebel al-Rafi, Rayhan and Sajoud. According to Mehr News, southern Lebanon saw Israeli air and artillery attacks in recent hours, with artillery fire covering Al-Mansouri, Eastern Zotar, Barashit, Kafrtbanit and Beit Yahoun.

Gaza's Health Ministry said, in a report cited by TASS, that seven people were killed and another 38 wounded over the past 48 hours in Israeli army strikes on the Gaza Strip. An Israeli air strike on a tent in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of northern Gaza City injured several displaced people, according to the Palestinian Information Centre. Israeli Air Force fighter jets resumed on Saturday attacks on mountainous areas near the Lebanese towns of Jezzine and Nabatieh, north of the Litani River. The targets were said to be underground shelters, command posts and Hezbollah depots on the heights of Jebel al-Rafi, Rayhan and Sajoud, according to the Janoubia portal.

Israeli forces shelled the areas of Mansouri and Majdal Zoun, in Lebanon’s southern Tyre district, and Wadi Hassan, a valley on the outskirts of Majdal Zoun, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA). The NNA also reported that Israeli forces used phosphorus munitions while shelling several towns in southern Lebanon on Friday, according to Anadolu, which cites the state news agency.

Iran’s proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resume talks on its nuclear programme in seven days is conditioned on the United States lifting its naval blockade, waiving sanctions on Iranian oil sales and observing a ceasefire that would include Lebanon, according to The Hindu. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi detailed the proposal on September 24 at a private gathering on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, according to one attendee. Pezeshkian hosted the prime minister of Qatar on September 25; Qatar has served as a mediator, including during hours of indirect Iranian-U.S. talks at the U.N. this week.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said that 4,386 people have been killed and 12,413 wounded since the military escalation began on March 2. Five of them were killed in Israeli airstrikes in Nabatieh province, in the south, over the past 24 hours, according to the same tally. A QOM News count records 4,386 killed and 12,407 injured between March 2 and September 17.

Israel bombed three towns in southern Lebanon and shelled two nearby areas, despite the ceasefire in place for months, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA), in an account carried by Middle East Eye. In the past hour, strikes hit Sarbin, al-Mansouri and Qantara, while artillery fire struck Wadi al-Saloqi and Wadi Zibqin, the agency said.

The Israeli army dropped white phosphorus bombs on the outskirts of the municipality of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, near Nabatieh in southern Lebanon, according to Middle East Eye, citing a report by Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA). There is no independent Israeli confirmation of the incident, and the information has not been independently verified.

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam told the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) that his country will not be an “arena for the conflicts of others” or a bargaining chip, and called for a ceasefire, a full Israeli withdrawal and all weapons to be held by the Lebanese state, according to Al Jazeera. In New York, Salam’s meetings have so far failed to secure Lebanon’s request for a six-month extension of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) mandate, and Beirut has been pushing for an international force to fill the gap after the mission ends, according to Ya Libnan. In the same session, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Falih Al-Zaidi called for a sovereign Palestinian state and said there can be no stability in the Middle East without a just solution to the Palestinian issue, according to Al Jazeera.

Children in southern Lebanon have returned to a school destroyed by an Israeli strike as the academic year begins, according to AFP. The war in southern Lebanon is confronting the education sector with a new test, with schools among the institutions hardest hit by Israeli bombardment, and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said in a July warning that 340 public and private schools had sustained varying degrees of damage and 17 had been completely destroyed, according to Arab News.

Fuel prices in Lebanon have doubled since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, reaching $1.60 a litre, Middle East Eye reports. The country’s trade union federation urged the government to declare a state of economic emergency and threatened an open-ended general strike next week; the World Bank projects Lebanon’s economy will contract 6.4% in 2026, according to the same report. The head of the workers’ confederation said the rising cost of living could lead to a “social explosion,” he told dpa.

An Israeli air strike hit al-Khiam, in southern Lebanon, overnight into Wednesday, 23 September 2026, damaging transmission lines and cutting power to the entire Nabaa el-Hamas area, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA), cited by Middle East Eye. A large explosion in al-Khiam, in the Nabatieh governorate, was felt across southern Lebanon, the agency reported. On Tuesday, 22 September, Israeli artillery struck the towns of Al-Mansouri and Baraachit, and Israeli forces advanced on Al-Mansouri with military vehicles and bulldozers, detonating houses in the town’s Fourth Neighbourhood that had been rigged with explosives, according to NNA.

Lebanon’s general amnesty law remains suspended by the Constitutional Council, which ruled by majority on September 10 to freeze the effects of the contested text until a final verdict expected by early October, after an appeal by the Strong Lebanon bloc of MP Gebran Bassil, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) and The New York Times. The suspension blocks the release of detainees who would have benefited, and prisoners protested the decision, some of them launching a hunger strike, according to The New York Times. The law, passed by parliament on August 12, 2026, and signed by President Joseph Aoun, is the first general amnesty since 1991: it commutes death sentences to life imprisonment, cuts life terms to 17 “prison years” — each counted as nine months — and orders the release of anyone held for more than 12 years without trial, according to AFP and New Arab. The most cited case is that of Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir, sentenced to death over the 2013 Abra clashes in which 18 Lebanese Army soldiers were killed. Bassil argues the text pardons perpetrators of murder, rape and attacks against the army and wants it narrowed to Islamists held without trial; Prime Minister Nawaf Salam is the amnesty’s main backer.

Lebanon’s prime minister, Nawaf Salam, told United Nations (UN) secretary-general António Guterres on Monday that the country needs an international force under the UN umbrella in the south once the mandate of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) expires, according to a statement from the premier’s office reported by Agence France-Presse (AFP). The statement said the presence should ‘ensure the continuation of the functions of monitoring, reporting and liaison’, help preserve stability and support extending the Lebanese state’s authority over all its territory. UNIFIL fields around 7,500 peacekeepers from 46 countries and its mandate ends on 31 December, after the Security Council decided last year, under US pressure, to end the mission created in 1978. Israel keeps troops in a self-declared ‘security zone’ about 10 kilometres deep inside south Lebanon, and President Joseph Aoun told AFP last week that extending UNIFIL’s mandate remains the best option; France and Italy want a multinational coalition to succeed it.