Lebanon has reported renewed Israeli strikes across the country’s south on Saturday, shortly after the Israeli military issued evacuation warnings for 20 locations, including the city of Nabatiyeh, ahead of expected raids.
At least five people have been killed in separate Israeli attacks across southern Lebanon, according to local reports, despite ongoing diplomatic progress in US-Iran negotiations .
Among the dead is Ali Badie, the mayor of Ar-Rihan municipality in the Jezzine district, who was killed in an Israeli strike. The circumstances surrounding his death remain unclear, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) .
Israeli forces also targeted the municipalities of Ar-Rihan and Kfar Hounah in Jezzine district using drone strikes. In Kfar Hounah, a van was hit, though details of casualties have not been confirmed.
Further strikes were reported in the southern town of Khiam, as well as in Qasiba in Nabatiyeh, al-Sarirah in Jezzine, and Majdal Zoun in the Tyre district. Artillery shelling was also reported in multiple areas.
The Israeli military had earlier warned residents in more than 20 locations to “evacuate your homes immediately and move to the north of the Zahrani River”, approximately 45 kilometres from the border.
Israel previously declared areas south of the river as “combat zones” and has continued sustained air and ground operations in the region.
Lebanon’s state media also reported explosions and shelling near the Ali Taher hills overlooking Nabatiyeh, while Hezbollah said its fighters had engaged advancing Israeli forces near Majdal Zoun.
The escalation comes amid continued cross-border conflict, with both Israel and Hezbollah failing to fully observe previous ceasefire arrangements, and wider regional tensions persisting alongside US-Iran diplomatic talks.
On Friday Hezbollah, which has kept up attacks on Israeli troops who have invaded south Lebanon, said its fighters had confronted Israeli forces advancing towards the town of Majdal Zoun.
Israel and Hezbollah have been at war since early March when the Iran-backed group drew Lebanon into the Middle East conflict with rocket fire at Israel to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes.
Israel launched a massive campaign of airstrikes and a ground invasion, killing more than 3,700 people in Lebanon, authorities say.
Neither Israel nor Hezbollah have respected an April ceasefire , and a conditional truce deal announced this month after the fourth round of direct Lebanese-Israeli negotiations in Washington has also failed to halt the fighting.
Hezbollah has rejected the direct talks and the conditional agreement , which requires it to cease attacks but makes no mention of Israel doing so or withdrawing troops from Lebanon.
Iran insists that Lebanon must be part of any agreement to end the wider Middle East war, and a senior US official said Friday that a peace deal with Iran "includes Lebanon".
But Lebanon's leaders have accused Tehran of treating Lebanon as a "bargaining chip". Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Fayyad on Saturday urged Lebanon to take advantage of any deal to end the Iran war that includes the country.
"We want the Lebanese state to negotiate for itself, and nobody is suggesting forfeiting this role," Fayyad said, "however, the state must abandon the policy of being crushed in the face of the Israelis and submission to the Americans." Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said in a statement on X on Saturday that Lebanon faces "a fateful test".
"Either its people unite around a sovereign state that monopolises weapons, upholds the law and protects citizens irrespective of their affiliation or position, or it remains hostage to the logic of militias," the statement said.