Since a ceasefire went into effect between Israel and Hezbollah more than two months ago, fighting has stopped in much of Lebanon, but not on a strategic hill overlooking parts of a main southern city.

In recent weeks, Ali Taher Hill has been the scene of daily shelling and airstrikes by Israel’s military. Hezbollah, a militant group backed by Iran, has repeatedly attacked Israeli forces in the area with drones.

The United States, which is mediating talks between Lebanon and Israel, had wanted Hezbollah to hand over the hill to the Lebanese army as part of larger plan to disarm the militant group and dismantle its infrastructure. But Hezbollah has refused.

Lebanon and Israel reached a framework agreement in June stating Israel will withdraw from Lebanon as Hezbollah is disarmed. The militant group was not a party to the negotiations and has rejected calls to disarm in areas north of the Litani river, which is where Ali Taher is located.

A full-on battle over this hill near the city of Nabatiyeh could escalate fighting across the country, and unrest in Lebanon complicates efforts to resolve the war in Iran.

On Thursday (September 3, 2026) night, Israel’s military announced it had taken “operational control” of Ali Taher and a network of tunnels beneath it that Hezbollah uses to shelter its fighters and weapons. It is unclear how far Israel’s control extends. Just before Israel’s announcement, its air force was still targeting the hill, according to Lebanese state media.

There has been no official statement from Hezbollah since Israel’s announcement.

U.S. urges Lebanon to pressure Hezbollah

Hezbollah firmly rejected a proposal from the Lebanese government to hand over Ali Taher to the country’s army. It fears Israel would then seize control of the hill from the Lebanese army and then demand the handover of more territory.

Israel had occupied Ali Taher for 18 years before it withdrew from Lebanon in 2000.

The hill has a strategic location overlooking several villages as well as main roads leading to Nabatiyeh. Losing full control of it would disrupt Hezbollah’s presence and supply lines in the area.

The Israeli military says the site is also important to Hezbollah because of tunnels it built there, with funding from Iran.

Israel said in its statement Thursday (September 3) that the hill housed underground command centres, weapons storage rooms, generators, living quarters, showers and a kitchen.

Israel said it cleared Ali Taher of Hezbollah fighters and was working to “neutralise underground infrastructure sites.” Hezbollah legislator Ihab Hamadeh questioned why the Israeli military was still attacking the hill if it was really in control of the area, according to the Arabic-language version of Russia’s state-funded news outlet Sputnik. An Associated Press photographer who visited the nearby village of Kfar Rumman on Friday (September 4) saw no sign of Israeli military presence on the hill.

The hill, topped with a shrine to a Muslim scholar, sits north of the Litani river, which has become the de facto boundary of the area captured by Israel since its latest war with Hezbollah began in early March.

Fighting has intensified in recent weeks

“Israel has been conducting military operations around Ali Taher since July,” said Nasser Khdour, a Middle East researcher at the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, or ACLED, a U.S.-based group that tracks conflicts around the world.

Hezbollah official Mahmoud Qamati told a Lebanese podcaster in late August that the group’s fighters were repelling attempts by Israeli troops to take Ali Taher. But he and others downplayed the significance of the site should Israel take it.

“Ali Taher is important, but if it is lost it does not mean the end of Hezbollah,” Mr. Qamati said.

In mid-August, Israel carried out a series of airstrikes on southern Lebanon that it described as retaliation for a Hezbollah drone attack on Ali Taher that seriously wounded three soldiers. The Israeli strikes, which killed 11 people, including women and children, were the deadliest since the U.S.-brokered ceasefire went into effect in late June.

On August 27, Israel carried out a series of airstrikes, killing one person and wounding six, after the military said Hezbollah fired two explosive drones at Israeli troops in the area. Hezbollah did not claim responsibility for any of the attacks.

Lebanon says Israel is hindering its army

Lebanon’s Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri told an Arab TV station in late August that the Lebanese army was ready to take over Ali Taher.

He accused Israel of blocking the army due to its own political considerations ahead of Israeli national elections on October 27.

“The problem is not in the Lebanese army’s readiness but in Israel’s stance,” he said.

Lebanese and Israeli officials are set to meet for negotiations in Rome later this month. Meanwhile, Hezbollah, which has always refused to speak directly to the U.S., appears to be changing its policy after the major setbacks it has suffered during its wars with Israel since 2024.

A Lebanese official told The Associated Press that indirect contacts are going on between the U.S. and Hezbollah, but refused to give any details. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

The U.S. ambassador to Lebanon, Michel Issa, said recently that Washington is ready to speak with Hezbollah if the group agrees to disarm.

Still, Hezbollah is not likely to take any move forward regarding talks with the U.S. without a green light from its main backer, Iran. While talks with the U.S. over their war have stalled, Iran has sought guarantees that Israel will halt its attacks on Hezbollah as part of any permanent deal.

What capture of Ali Taher could mean

The capture of Ali Taher would open the way to Nabatiyeh and also lead to the nearby Apple Province and Rihan Mountain, where Hezbollah has been building up its presence since the late 1990s.

Israeli leaders have repeatedly pledged to leave troops in Lebanon and threatened to escalate military pressure until Hezbollah disarms.

“Israeli control of the area is an operational and military setback for Hezbollah,” said Mr. Khdour of ACLED. He said clearing these sites helps Israel protect towns in the northern part of its country, and increases pressure on Hezbollah.

“This will strengthen Israel’s position in any future negotiations over its withdrawal,” said Mr. Khdour.

Published – September 05, 2026 02:50 pm IST

Israel’s air force struck different parts of southern Lebanon on Friday (June 5, 2026), and its military issued evacuation warnings for nine villages, including one that has been spared much of the destruction and has sheltered thousands of people displaced by the three-month war.

The Israeli strikes killed nine people in six locations in southern Lebanon, the state news agency reported.

Meanwhile, the new warnings forced hundreds of families to flee the village of Anqoun and the area of Aarnaya, on the edge of the predominantly Christian community of Maghdoucheh, near the southern port city of Sidon. Elsewhere, people began to return to their homes to survey the aftermath of fighting between Israeli forces and the Hezbollah militant group.

Wide parts of the south have already been devastated by the war. An Associated Press team traveling in the south on Friday (June 5, 2026) saw multiple villages in ruins, including Dibbine, near Marjayoun town, from which Israeli troops withdrew a day earlier.

It was the first time Israeli troops pulled out of an area in southern Lebanon since the latest Israel-Hezbollah war began in early March. U.N. peacekeepers and Lebanese troops were at an entrance of Dibbine, clearing rubble and opening roads.

But the Lebanese army set up barbed wire at one of the entrances, preventing residents from returning yet.

At least one family arrived to search the rubble of its home along the road leading to the village, while the owner of a petrol station in Dibbine looked at his destroyed property and called village residents to report on the destruction he saw from behind the barbed wire.

Israel had warned Lebanese residents against returning to villages in the south, saying the area is still a combat zone.

The current ceasefire agreement calls for Lebanon’s armed forces to take control of security zones in Lebanon from which the militants would be banned. But the latest deal between Israel and the Lebanese government has been rejected by Hezbollah, which demanded a complete Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a strong ally of Hezbollah who has been acting as a mediator on behalf of the group, echoed the militants’ demands. In his first comments since the agreement was announced on Wednesday (June 3, 2026) in Washington, Berri said that he accepts Hezbollah’s withdrawal from the areas south of the Litani River as long as it coincides with the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon.

The river, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of the border with Israel, forms the boundary of a 2006 U.N.-established buffer zone in which Hezbollah is banned. Israeli troops have pushed far past the river into southern Lebanon.

Mr. Berri added in a written statement that the ceasefire should be “complete and comprehensive,” without any exceptions for land, sea or air, and “without bulldozing and demolishing everything that exists.” He was referring to wide areas that have been demolished by Israeli troops.

The war in Lebanon, where Israeli forces have seized large swaths of the south since March 2, threatens efforts to end the Iran war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a globally important conduit for oil, natural gas, fertilizer and other commodities.

Iran has demanded that any lasting truce extend to Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces elections later this year, wants to press ahead with Israel’s offensive until Hezbollah no longer poses a threat.

In Iran developments, American forces boarded a sanctioned oil tanker linked to the Islamic Republic in the Indian Ocean, the U.S. military said Friday.

U.S. Indo-Pacific Command posted on X that the forces boarded the MT Davina, without offering details. U.S. forces around the world have sought to prevent Iran from profiting off its oil and other goods. They have been directed to stop ships tied to Tehran or those suspected of carrying supplies that could help its government.

The U.S. Navy has imposed a blockade of Iran’s ports as part of an effort to force Tehran to open the strait and accept a deal to extend a tenuous ceasefire in the war.

Nearly three hours after Friday’s evacuation warnings were issued by the Israeli military’s Arabic spokesperson, Israeli warplanes struck the Lebanese villages, including Anqoun. About 2,500 people displaced by the fighting were sheltering in Anqoun, the Lebanese news agency NNA reported.

Shrapnel and pieces of missiles were seen in the rubble of homes lining the road into Dibbine. Israeli troops entered the village weeks ago for the first time and were engaged in heavy clashes with Hezbollah fighters in the area. The troops returned this week, before withdrawing on Thursday (June 4, 2026).

The road to Dibbine was dotted with villages entirely emptied of residents and destroyed by Israeli strikes, including Khiam. But no Israeli troops were visible from the road.

Nearby Christian villages were largely untouched, and many of their residents decided to stay. The strategic Beaufort castle, captured by Israel last week, appeared in the distance, with a flag of the Israeli Golani Brigade. Smoke from strikes around the nearby Nabatiyeh city billowed above.

Israeli troops have seized around a fifth of Lebanon, pushing further into the country’s south than at any time since the end of Israel’s 1982-2000 occupation. The latest declared ceasefire came about through U.S.-brokered talks between Israel and Lebanon’s government, which accuses Hezbollah of dragging the country into war and had made efforts to disarm it before the latest hostilities.

On Thursday (June 4, 2026) night, an airstrike in the southern city of Tyre killed three and wounded seven people, including three children and two women, the Health Ministry said.

In northern Israel on Thursday (June 4, 2026) , drone alert sirens sounded in several border communities, including a town where Netanyahu had met earlier with local officials. The Israeli military later said the sirens were triggered by attempts to intercept several drones that hit near soldiers in southern Lebanon. No injuries were reported.

More than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon since the war began. The fighting has killed at least 29 Israeli soldiers and three civilians.

Published – June 05, 2026 11:02 pm IST

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Beirut:

At least two people were killed on Monday in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon, Lebanese authorities said, as a ceasefire ending more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah appeared increasingly fragile.

The truce, which came into effect early on Nov. 27, stipulates that Israel will not carry out offensive military operations against civilian, military or other state targets in Lebanon, while Lebanon will prevent any armed groups, including Hezbollah, from carrying out operations against Israel.

Lebanon and Israel have already traded accusations of breaches, and on Monday Lebanon said the violations had turned deadly.

One person was killed in an Israeli air attack on the southern Lebanese town of Marjayoun, about 10 km (six miles) from the border with Israel, Lebanon’s health ministry said.

Lebanon’s state security said an Israeli drone strike had killed a member of its force while he was on duty in Nabatieh, 12 km from the border. State security called it a “flagrant violation” of the truce.

There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials.

Public broadcaster Kan and other Israeli media outlets said on Monday that U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein, who brokered the ceasefire after weeks of shuttle diplomacy, had warned Israel against alleged violations.

The Israeli government did not immediately comment on the reports.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Watch: Explained: Why did Israel accept the Hezbollah ceasefire?

When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to launch a military invasion of Lebanon on October 1 — Israel’s fourth invasion of the neighbouring country — he said his main objective was to let the over 60,000 northern Israelis, who were displaced by Hezbollah rockets, return to their homes.

Almost two months later, he accepted a ceasefire with Hezbollah, agreeing to withdraw all Israeli troops to the south of the Lebanese border. The future of the displaced residents remains uncertain. Hezbollah still possesses thousands of drones and rockets and the capability to fire them.

Then why did Mr. Netanyahu accept the ceasefire?

Read more: Making sense of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire

Script and presentation: Stanly Johny

Editing: Aniket Singh Chauhan

Video: Shivaraj S

Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem.

Beirut:

Lebanese group Hezbollah said Wednesday it had achieved “victory” over Israel and that its fighters were at the ready, after a truce between the two sides took effect.

“Victory from God almighty was the ally of the righteous cause,” a statement from the Iran-backed group said, adding that its fighters “will remain in total readiness to deal with the Israeli enemy’s ambitions and its attacks”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Beirut:

Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah traded deadly blows on Thursday as their war raged on despite signs of progress in US ceasefire efforts, with airstrikes pounding Beirut’s southern suburbs and rockets flying into northern Israel.

US mediator Amos Hochstein was in Israel for talks with Israeli officials to try to secure a ceasefire which he said was “within our grasp” during a visit to Beirut earlier this week.

The diplomacy marks the most serious attempt yet to end the conflict between Israel and the heavily armed, Iran-backed Hezbollah, part of the regional spillover of the Gaza war that erupted more than a year ago.

In southern Lebanon, an Israeli airstrike killed three people in the village of Chaaitiyeh, some 10 km (6 miles), from the border, the Lebanese health ministry said.

In Israel, a 30-year-old man was killed when shrapnel from a rocket struck a playground in the northern town of Nahariya, Israel’s MDA medical service said.

“The Israeli government is not safeguarding my security, my residents or the residents of the north (of Israel). It is not possible to live in such a situation like this,” Nahariya Mayor Ronen Marelly told public broadcaster Kan.

The Israeli military said about 10 rockets were launched from Lebanon towards Nahariya. “Most of the projectiles were intercepted and fallen projectiles were identified,” the military said in a statement.

Channel 12 said three rockets hit the coastal town.

Hezbollah’s al-Manar television station, citing its correspondent, confirmed rocket fire towards Nahariya and the surrounding area.

Airstrikes on Beirut’s Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs shook the capital, sending up thick clouds of debris.

The Israeli military issued a statement on X ahead of strikes warning residents they were near Hezbollah targets against which it would soon take action. Residents have largely fled the area since Israel went on the offensive in September.

White House envoy Hochstein left for Israel after declaring progress during two days of talks in Lebanon with officials including Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, endorsed to negotiate by the Iran-backed Hezbollah. Speaking before he left Beirut, Hochstein said he was going to Israel to try to close an agreement if possible.

The diplomacy aims to end a conflict that has inflicted massive devastation in Lebanon since Israel began its offensive, mounting airstrikes across wide parts of the country and sending in troops.

Footage broadcast by Al Jazeera showed thick smoke rising from the town of Khiyam in southern Lebanon, some 6 km (4 miles) from the border, a focal point of ground battles between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops.

Israel says its aim is to secure the return home of tens of thousands of people evacuated from its north due to rocket attacks by Hezbollah, which opened fire in support of Hamas at the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.

Hezbollah, which has suffered major blows since Israel began its offensive in September, has kept up rocket fire into Israel, attacking Tel Aviv this week. Its fighters are battling Israeli troops on the ground in the south.

The casualty toll since Oct. 2023 stands at 3,558 people killed in Lebanon, the Lebanese health ministry says, most of them killed during the Israeli offensive since September. The figures do not distinguish between combatants and civilians. The ministry said 14 fatalities were reported on Tuesday.

Hezbollah strikes have killed more than 100 people in northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. They include more than 70 soldiers killed in strikes in northern Israel and the Golan Heights and in combat in southern Lebanon, according to Israel.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

On top of the grievous toll in human life and misery, Israel’s war against the Hamas and Hezbollah militant groups has been expensive, and the painfully high financial costs are raising concerns about the long-term effect of the fighting on the country’s economy.

Military spending has ballooned, and growth has stalled, especially in dangerous border areas that were evacuated. Economists say the country could face declining investment and higher taxes as the war strains government budgets and forces tough choices between social programs and the military.

Here is a look at the monetary costs Israel faces as a result of the conflict:

The Israeli Government is spending much more per month on the military, from $1.8 billion before Hamas started the fighting by attacking Israel on October 7, 2023, to around $4.7 billion by the end of last year, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

The Government spent $27.5 billion on the military last year, according to the institute, ranking 15th globally behind Poland but ahead of Canada and Spain, all of which have larger populations. Military spending as a percentage of annual economic output was 5.3%, compared with 3.4% for the United States and 1.5% for Germany. That pales in comparison to Ukraine, which spent 37% of its GDP and more than half its entire government budget on fighting off Russia’s invasion.

In the three months after Hamas attacked, Israel’s economic output shrank 5.6%, the worst performance of any of the 38 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group of mostly rich nations.

The economy partly rebounded with growth of 4% in the first part of this year but grew only 0.2% in the second quarter.

The war has inflicted an even heavier toll on Gaza’s already broken economy, where 90% of the population has been displaced and the vast majority of the workforce is unemployed. The West Bank economy has also been hit hard, where tens of thousands of Palestinian labourers lost their jobs in Israel after October 7 and Israeli military raids and checkpoints have hindered movement. The World Bank says the West Bank economy contracted by 25% in the first quarter.

In Israel, the war has imposed many economic burdens. Call-ups and extensions of military service threaten to crimp the labour supply. Security worries deter investment in new business, and disruptions in flights have kept many visitors away, cutting into the tourism industry.

Meanwhile, the government is paying for housing for thousands of people who had to leave their homes in the south near the border with Gaza and in the north where they were exposed to fire from Hezbollah.

One of the biggest concerns is the open-ended nature of the fighting, which has lasted more than a year. Israel’s economy rebounded quickly from a 2006 war with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. But that conflict lasted only 34 days.

Moody’s Ratings cited that idea on September 27, when it lowered the Israeli Government’s credit rating, two notches. The Baa1 rating is still considered investment grade, albeit with moderate risk, according to Moody’s.

Israel’s economy is hardly collapsing. The country has a diversified, highly developed economy with a strong information-technology sector, which supports tax revenues and defence spending. Unemployment is low, and the TA-35 stock index is up 10.5% on the year.

Even amid the fighting, tech companies raised some $2.5 billion in capital during the third quarter, according to Zvi Eckstein, head of the Aaron Institute for Economic Policy at Reichman University.

“Israel started the war “in the best economic condition” regarding government debt, which stood at a relatively modest 60% of GDP,” Mr. Eckstein said. “We financed the war mainly with debt,” which has now risen to 62% but is still contained compared with France at 111% and in line with Germany at 63.5%.

The institute foresees debt reaching 80% of GDP, assuming the fighting does not markedly intensify and some sort of cease-fire or conclusion can be reached by the end of next year. Even then, higher defence spending is likely, especially if Israel maintains a military presence in Gaza after the war.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s budget for 2025 foresees a deficit of below 4%, saying that will ensure that Israel’s debt burden remains stable. Mr. Smotrich said the country has a stable shekel currency, rising share prices, a tight jobs market, strong tax revenues and access to credit, and a rebounding tech sector.

Moody’s questioned the deficit figures, forecasting a 6% deficit for next year.

“The credit downgrade will lead to higher borrowing costs, meaning Israelis are likely to see cuts to public services and higher taxes,” said Karnit Flug, a former head of Israel’s central bank and now vice president of research at the Israel Democracy Institute.

Before the war, American military aid to Israel amounted to around $3.8 billion per year under a deal signed during President Barack Obama’s administration. That comes to roughly 14% of Israel’s prewar military spending, much of which goes to U.S. defence companies.

Since the war in Gaza began and led to escalating conflict across the Middle East, the United States has spent a record of at least $17.9 billion on military aid to Israel, according to a report for Brown University’s Costs of War project that was released on the anniversary of the Hamas attacks on Israel.

Beyond strictly military aid, the U.S. has offered critical financial support for Israel during times of trouble. Congress in 2003 approved $9 billion in credit guarantees that let Israel borrow at affordable rates after the economy suffered during the so-called second intifada, or Palestinian uprising.

Some of those guarantees remain unused and could in theory be tapped to stabilise government finances if Israel faces unaffordable borrowing costs.

The government has convened a commission under former acting national security adviser Jacob Nagel, who negotiated Israel’s most recent U.S. aid package, to offer recommendations on the size of the future defence budget and to assess how increased defence spending could affect the economy.

Economist Eckstein said a budget that includes some tax increases and cuts in social spending would be needed to support a postwar rebound and pay for likely higher ongoing defence costs.

Jerusalem:

The Israeli army on Monday said air raid sirens were activated across central Israel, including the commercial hub of Tel Aviv, as projectiles were fired across the border from Lebanon.

“Sirens sounded in a number of areas in central Israel due to projectiles fired from Lebanon into Israeli territory,” the army said in a statement.

The police said they had deployed officers to locate and secure any potential impact sites “to ensure public safety”.

In a later statement, the military said that “several interception attempts were made toward a number of projectiles that crossed from Lebanon”.

It did not specify whether any of the projectiles had breached the country’s air defences.

The barrage comes just a day after a Hezbollah drone attack killed four soldiers in the deadliest attack on Israel since the war in Lebanon began.

Israel and Hezbollah have been at war since Israel intensified its strikes on Lebanon on September 23 and sent ground troops across the border a week later.

Israel has vowed to secure its northern border to allow tens of thousands of people displaced by nearly a year of Hezbollah rocket fire. Hezbollah says the rocket fire is in solidarity with its Palestinian ally, Hamas.

Israel’s air defences, including the Iron Dome system, have so far intercepted most of the projectiles, with a few casualties caused by strikes or falling debris.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)