Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh on May 27, 2026. Hezbollah said its fighters clashed with Israeli forces beyond an Israeli-declared “yellow line” in south Lebanon on May 27, despite a ceasefire, a day after Israel said it was expanding ground operations.
| Photo Credit: AFP
Hezbollah said its fighters clashed with Israeli forces beyond an Israeli-declared “yellow line” in south Lebanon on Wednesday (May 27, 2026) despite a ceasefire, a day after Israel said it was expanding ground operations.
Israel this week vowed to intensify operations in Lebanon, a move that came ahead of talks on Friday (May 29, 2026) between Lebanese and Israeli military delegations at the Pentagon and a new round of direct negotiations next week aimed at ending the hostilities.
Israel stepped up strikes on south and east Lebanon on Tuesday (May 26), issuing evacuation warnings for at least 50 towns and villages and killing at least 31 people, as Hezbollah also kept up its attacks.
An AFP correspondent at one of those strike sites, in Burj al-Shemali near the city of Tyre, saw rescue workers removing debris on Wednesday and carrying a white body bag from the rubble, which was littered with items including rugs and cushions.
The state-run National News Agency (NNA), citing the mayor, said that 15 people were killed there.
Iran-backed Hezbollah said its fighters “clashed with the enemy forces at point-blank range” in the town of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, just beyond the Israeli-declared “yellow line” in south Lebanon where its troops have been operating.
Since early Tuesday, the group had said its fighters had confronted Israeli troops seeking to penetrate the town, which is strategically important due to its proximity to the major southern city of Nabatieh, just six kilometres (four miles) away.
‘Buffer zone’
Israel’s army on Wednesday (May 27) renewed an evacuation warning for Nabatieh after issuing a similar warning a day earlier, saying it would act “forcefully” against Hezbollah, which it accuses of violating the ceasefire.
It subsequently said it was striking “Hezbollah infrastructure sites” in the eastern Bekaa valley and south Lebanon, as the NNA reported raids in both regions.
The Israeli army also said that over the past day it had struck “more than 150 Hezbollah infrastructure sites and terrorists in the areas of Tyre and Nabatieh in southern Lebanon” and in the Bekaa.
The Israeli troop movement towards Zawtar al-Sharqiyah comes after a military official said Tuesday that soldiers had begun operating beyond the “yellow line”, which runs around 10 kilometres deep inside Lebanese territory.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the Israeli army “is operating with substantial forces on the ground and securing strategically dominant positions. We are reinforcing the security buffer zone in order to protect the communities of northern Israel”.
West Bekaa
After Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the West Asia war with rocket fire at Israel in retaliation for strikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Israel has repeatedly struck Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa valley and warned residents to evacuate.
But in recent days, strikes there have intensified, including focusing on the West Bekaa town of Mashghara, where hundreds of displaced people had been sheltering and which has now largely emptied.
Mayor Iskandar Barakeh told AFP that he was worried that “the West Bekaa region is becoming the scene of rear confrontations” between Israel and Hezbollah.
The West Bekaa links south Lebanon with Hezbollah strongholds in the northern Bekaa and is a key supply route for the group.
Lebanese military expert Hassan Jouni told AFP that the West Bekaa “is a necessary corridor for Hezbollah members if they want to move between the Bekaa and the south” and could become the further focus of Israeli strikes.
He said Israeli operations might soon expand to “target the north Bekaa intensively or even Beirut’s southern suburbs”, both areas that have been relatively spared since the ceasefire.
A military delegation comprising six Lebanese officers, headed by the army’s director of operations Georges Rizkallah, will take part in the talks at the Pentagon on Friday.
A military source told AFP the delegation will “emphasise the need for a ceasefire, and will present the army’s plan for a state weapons monopoly and the extension of state authority across the country”.
Published – May 27, 2026 08:55 pm IST
