Israel strikes south Lebanon day after ceasefire extension

FE Team | Published: May 16, 2026 21:55:38

BEIRUT, May 16 (Arab News): Israel launched new airstrikes against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon on Saturday, a day after the two countries agreed to extend a truce following talks in Washington.
"The IDF has begun striking Hezbollah infrastructure sites in several areas in southern Lebanon," the Israeli military said.
Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported strikes on at least five villages in the south, preceded by an exodus of residents toward the southern city of Sidon and the capital Beirut.
The Israeli military had earlier warned residents of nine villages in the Sidon and Nabatieh regions to evacuate ahead of the strikes. It comes after envoys from Israel and Lebanon held negotiations in Washington following the first direct talks in decades last month between the two countries, which do not have diplomatic relations.
Israel confirms Hamas armed
wing chief killed in Gaza strike
Hamas's armed wing chief Ezzedine Al-Haddad, described by Israel as an architect of the October 7 attack, was killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza the previous day, the military and Hamas confirmed on Saturday.
Since Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the Israeli military and intelligence services have waged an extensive campaign targeting the group's senior political leaders and militant commanders in Gaza and across the region.
On Friday, the military said it had carried out an airstrike in Gaza targeting Haddad, and confirmed his death on Saturday.
"The IDF and the ISA announce that yesterday, in a precise strike in the area of the City of Gaza, the terrorist Ezzedine Al-Haddad was eliminated," the military said, referring to itself and the Shin Bet domestic security agency.
Two Hamas officials also told AFP that Haddad had been killed in an Israeli strike.
"Senior commander... Ezzedine Al-Haddad was assassinated in an Israeli strike targeting a residential apartment and a civilian vehicle in Gaza City yesterday," one senior Hamas official said.