Israel carried out a series of strikes on southern Lebanon on Saturday, despite extending a truce for a month and a half, leaving Lebanese displaced by the war skeptical.
The strikes, aimed according to the Israeli army “Hezbollah infrastructure in several areas of the south”were preceded by a call to evacuate nine villages.
The Lebanese National Information Agency (ANI, official) indicated that around twenty villages had been hit, including one more than 50 km north of the border, an expanded perimeter compared to past strikes.
The bombings were preceded by an exodus of residents towards the city of Saida and Beirut, the capital, according to ANI.
On Friday, during a second day of talks between Israel and Lebanon in Washington, the United States announced the extension of a truce that came into force on April 17, which was due to expire on Sunday.
The interior of an apartment exposed after the collapse of the exterior walls of a building damaged by an overnight Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, May 16, 2026
Kawnat HAJU / AFP
More than 400 people have been killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon since the start of the truce, according to an AFP count based on official figures.
“This is not a truce since Israeli aggression continues on the south and its inhabitants (…) There are martyrs, wounded and destruction”dit à l’AFP Ali Salamé.
This 60-year-old man had to flee the south and took refuge in a school in Beirut converted into a reception center for displaced people.
« Avec la Résistance »
“What truce are they talking about when they have just threatened the villages and people are fleeing? Where is the State? We are with the Resistance and that’s it.”says in reference to the pro-Iranian Shiite movement Hezbollah Nawal Mezher, also displaced from the village of Babiliyé in the south.
A construction machine clears the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli nighttime strikes on the city of Tyre, in southern Lebanon, on May 16, 2026
Kawnat HAJU / AFP
On Friday, six people were killed, including three rescuers from the Islamic Health Committee, affiliated with Hezbollah, according to the Health Ministry.
The Israeli army, for its part, announced that one of its soldiers had been killed in southern Lebanon, bringing to 21 the number of deaths in its ranks since the start of the war against Hezbollah in early March.
In the ancient city of Tyre, 37 people were injured on Friday in strikes on a residential area, preceded by Israeli warnings.
An AFP correspondent saw significant destruction at the targeted location, close to the ancient ruins of the coastal city.
“They destroyed the entire neighborhoodâ€laments Ibrahim Kahwaji, a tailor whose shop is in the area and who was injured in the leg. “They are emptying the south of its population (…) it’s a real occupation, we want a solution.”.
The negotiations between Israel and Lebanon on Friday in Washington, rejected by Hezbollah, were the third session of discussions, the first in decades between the two countries which do not maintain diplomatic relations.
The negotiations concern in particular the thorny question of the disarmament of Hezbollah.
« Concessions gratuites »
The Shiite formation continues to claim attacks against the Israeli army, including several on Saturday in southern Lebanon where Israeli soldiers are deployed, and occasionally against Israel. She thus claimed on Saturday to have struck a barracks in Ya’ara, in the north of Israel, with “An essay on attack drones”.
The Israeli army, for its part, announced at dawn on Sunday that it had intercepted several rockets fired towards its soldiers in southern Lebanon, an attack which it said caused no injuries.
Residents in front of the rubble of damaged and collapsed buildings after nighttime Israeli strikes on the city of Tyre, in southern Lebanon, on May 16, 2026
Kawnat HAJU / AFP
Hezbollah says it is targeting Israel in retaliation for ceasefire violations in southern villages. He criticized the extension of the truce on Saturday, saying in a press release that the proposal to establish a security mechanism facilitated by the United States was added “a series of free concessionsâ€, “Offerings to the enemy” by the Lebanese authorities.
Lebanon was plunged into regional war with Iran on March 2, when Hezbollah launched an attack on Israel to avenge the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Nearly 3,000 people have been killed and more than a million displaced since then, according to official figures.
Friday evening, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam castigated the Shiite movement. “Enough of irresponsible adventures that serve foreign interests”he said, ensuring that no armed group should be tolerated.
