Israel reported on Thursday (August 6, 2026) its first military fatalities in southern Lebanon in more than a month, after carrying out fresh strikes despite ongoing U.S.-backed talks in Rome aimed at ending hostilities.

Also read: West Asia LIVE

The military identified the two reservists, who were killed in combat on Wednesday (August 5, 2026), as Major Harel Birenstock, 34, and Sergeant Major Tamir Vaknin, 33, of the 2855th Battalion, 55th Brigade.

The deaths were the first Israeli fatalities reported in southern Lebanon since June 28.

The Israeli strikes, accompanied by the first evacuation warning in weeks, came as the United States led diplomacy between Israel and Lebanon in Rome aimed at putting an end to hostilities, with Beirut seeking Israel’s phased withdrawal from the south.

“In response to a blatant violation of the ceasefire by the Hezbollah terrorist organisation, the IDF has begun conducting precise strikes in southern Lebanon,” the military said in a statement, shortly after telling residents to evacuate the town of Mansouri in the south.

Lebanese state media said one person died and 11 were wounded in a separate strike.

In Rome, Israel requested that the day’s talks with Lebanon end three hours early, a source in the negotiations told AFP, saying the head of the Israeli delegation, U.S. ambassador Yechiel Leiter, had blamed alleged “misleading leaks” by the Lebanese side.

But the talks were expected to resume on Thursday (August 7, 2026) for a third and final day.

In previous U.S.-sponsored talks in June, Israel and Lebanon agreed to a framework deal that involves the disarmament of Hezbollah, a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon’s south and the deployment of the Lebanese army to the region, starting in test areas known as “pilot zones”.

This week’s negotiations are the seventh round since Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the West Asia war in March with rocket fire at Israel in support of its backer, Iran.

Israel responded with heavy airstrikes and a ground invasion that Lebanon says have killed more than 4,300 people.

In its first such warning since June, the Israeli military on Wednesday (August 6, 2026) told the residents of Mansouri: “In light of Hezbollah’s violations of the ceasefire agreement, the Israel Defence Forces are compelled to act against it with force.”

“For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and move north,” the military’s Arabic-language spokeswoman, Ella Waweya, posted on X.

The UN’s humanitarian agency had said just the night before that more than 800,000 people displaced by earlier fighting in Lebanon had begun heading back home following the recent lull in violence, though more than 360,000 remained displaced.

The town of Mansouri, located around nine kilometres (six miles) south of Tyre and 10 kilometres north of Israel, and its surroundings were subjected to several Israeli strikes and artillery shelling in recent weeks despite the ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel that took hold in June.

The town’s municipality told residents on June 22 that they could return but asked them to avoid the part of the town that fell within Israel’s so-called “security zone” in southern Lebanon.

The “security zone” designates a strip of territory where Israeli forces continue to operate that runs around 10 kilometres deep inside southern Lebanon along its border with Israel.

The Israeli military has destroyed underground infrastructure ​used by Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in a village ‌in southern Lebanon, according to a joint statement ​by the Israeli Prime Minister ⁠and Defence Minister on Sunday (June 29, 2026).

The U.S. was informed ahead of the attack, which targeted a 200-meter (656-ft)-long tunnel in the ‌town of Majdal Zoun, according to the statement from PM Netanyahu ‌and Defence Minister Israel Katz.

The Israeli ‌statement ⁠said the tunnel contained hundreds of weapons and ⁠launchers.

The attack comes hours after the Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and struck ​a rocket launcher in ‌the Nabatieh area of southern Lebanon.

A U.S.-brokered security agreement, which was agreed on between Lebanon and Israel on Friday (June 27, 2026), provides for a phased Israeli ‌withdrawal from some parts of southern Lebanon, alongside ​the deployment of the Lebanese army. But Israeli forces would be permitted to ⁠remain in an expanded security zone for the time being.

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem rejected the agreement, describing ‌it as a surrender to Israel. He said the group would continue its armed resistance.

Netanyahu’s statement said the Israeli military would remain in the security zone in southern Lebanon and will “continue to destroy terrorist infrastructure, ‌remove threats from the northern communities, and safeguard the security of ​Israel’s citizens.”

More than a million Lebanese have been driven from their homes by ⁠the conflict that has run in parallel with ⁠the wider Iran war.

Hezbollah and Iran say Washington pledged to end hostilities in Lebanon ‌as part of its memorandum of understanding signed two weeks ago to end the wider ​war.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Tuesday (June 16, 2026) that the end of the Iran war included the end of Israel’s occupation of Lebanon, state TV reported.

Iranian state television quoted the top official making the comment to foreign diplomats in a briefing. It did not air the remarks, but put them in an on-screen graphic.

West Asia LIVE updates – June 16, 2026

“The important point I want to emphasise here is that in our view, there are two parties to this memorandum — one side is America and Israel, and the other side is Iran and Hezbollah. This is perhaps the most important issue in the memorandum — the declaration of an immediate and permanent end to the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon,” Mr. Araghchi said.

It also quoted Mr. Araghchi as saying that Israel’s continued occupation of southern Lebanon would violate the memorandum of understanding reached between the United States and Iran.

It remains unclear what is in the interim agreement, as it has yet to be released publicly in full.

With inputs from AP, AFP

Israel ​said its military attacked Hezbollah targets in Beirut’s ‌southern suburbs on Sunday (June 14, 2026) after the Lebanese ​armed group fired into ⁠Israeli territory.

The Israeli military said earlier that Hezbollah had launched three projectiles towards communities in northern Israel, ‌calling it a blatant ceasefire violation.

West Asia war updates on June 14, 2026

“The IDF has now attacked ‌terrorist targets of the Hezbollah terrorist ‌organization ⁠in the Dahiyeh neighborhood of ⁠Beirut, in response to Hezbollah’s firing into Israeli territory,” a joint statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ​and Defense Minister ‌Israel Katz said.

There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah on the Israeli statement, but the group said it launched ‌missiles and drones towards Israeli troops ​in southern Lebanon.

Last week, an Israeli strike on Dahiyeh triggered ⁠an exchange of fire between Israel and Iran that threatened to derail a U.S.-Iran deal ‌that would end the wider war.

Washington and Tehran appear to be getting closer to a deal to end the more than three-month-long conflict, with U.S. and Pakistani leaders forecast a ‌signing on Sunday.

Iran has long made the ​cessation of fighting in Lebanon a condition for any wider agreement with ⁠the United States.

Lebanese security sources said ⁠the attack on Dahiyeh appeared to be a targeted strike with two ‌missiles. 

The Beaufort Castle sits right beside the Litani River in southern Lebanon, with an unobstructed view of northern Israel and the sweeping Beqaa valley. The 900-year-old structure, which literally means “beautiful fort” in Old French, has come under renewed spotlight after the Israeli military invasion on June 1.

Originally called Qalaat al-Shaqif, or the “Castle of the High Rock,” Beaufort was built by European crusaders atop older fortifications in 1139. Invaded and besieged multiple times throughout its long history, the bastion has been at the centre of the Israel-Lebanon conflict and a pain point in the fragile ceasefire, announced by U.S. President Donald Trump on April 17.

In 1190, the stately structure was captured by Saladin, the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria, who used it as an important border outpost to strengthen his reign. Due to its military importance, the castle has changed hands frequently, with Crusaders (most famously the Knights Templar), Egyptian Mamluks, Ottomans, and the French all leaving their marks on it.

The Frankish Crusaders created its two-storey keep with an entry through the ground floor, unlike other forts of its time. Exposed stone staircases cut directly into the rock were built, forcing visitors and attackers to ascend in a single file on the highly exposed path.

The Mamluks added curved towers to defend against the firing of spherical stones. They inscribed Arabic victory messages into the front gates of the castle. The Ottoman takeover saw the repartitioning of the 15,000-square-metre area for logistical and residential usage. They built barracks and added slits in the fort walls for precise firing.

Internal politics led to many of the early constructions being mined and later restored using crude stone.

The French period saw the stripping away of Ottoman influence and attempts at restoring Crusader architecture. Beaufort has a sharp 300m drop on one side and the valley on the other, protecting it from enemy attacks. This vantage point is still used for military strikes, surveillance, and the deployment of weaponry.

The natural trench between the fortress and the fast-flowing Litani leads to the city of Nabatieh, an ancient centre for the trade of precious spices and commodities like Myrrh and Frankincense in its historical Souk el-Tanen market.

Caught in the war

The sand-battered behemoth is on track to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has been included on the country’s ‘tentative list.’ November 2024 saw the global body granting it provisional enhanced protection under the 1954 Hague Convention.

During the 1970s, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) attacked Israel from the fort’s ramparts. Underground bunkers and command centres were constructed, with some going as deep as 65m underground.

In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon, seized the fortress from the PLO, and raised the ‘blue and white’ for the first time. This was a significant moment. Then Israeli Defence Minister Ariel Sharon called the taking of Beirut a war that was “worth it” and rejected the allegations of it being “immoral.”

The banner of Israel came down in 2000 when the Israelis blew up their bunkers and abandoned the castle, when they withdrew from Lebanon after 18 years of occupation. What followed was its opening to the public and years of restoration, with a brief pause in 2006 due to another Israeli invasion.

The 2026 invasion by Israel marks one of the most significant escalations in the conflict since the dawn of the millennium.

In March this year, Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel in retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In response, Israel launched massive air strikes which were followed by a ground invasion.

The U.S.-backed ceasefire is functionally defunct, with both sides launching attacks against each other. Israel wants to push Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon and keep the territory it has captured. Hezbollah says it would continue to fight as long as Israel continues the occupation of Lebanese land.

Israeli strikes overnight in the historic south Lebanon city of Tyre killed seven people, a source from the civil defence told AFP on Friday (June 5, 2026), despite a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war.

One strike near Jabal Amel hospital killed four people, wounded seven and lightly damaged the facility, while another in a residential area killed three and wounded five, including two children.

Israel-Iran war LIVE updates

Later on Friday (June 5, 2026) the Israeli military issued new evacuation warnings for nine southern Lebanese towns and villages, with Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reporting people were fleeing.

Lebanon was drawn into the wider Middle East war when Hezbollah attacked Israel on March 2 to avenge the February 28 killing of Iran’s supreme leader.

A conditional truce was announced by Lebanese and Israeli envoys this week that would require Hezbollah to stop firing, withdraw from near the border and would see Lebanon’s army deploy to new “pilot zones” in the area.

But Hezbollah has rejected the agreement, calling for a full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.

On Friday an AFP correspondent saw a bank heavily damaged near the Jabal Amel medical facility, one of three hospitals in Tyre.

The hospital has been damaged by strikes on several occasions during the war, most recently in a major attack on Monday that killed four people and wounded 127, including 39 staff.

Following Israeli orders for residents to leave most of Tyre, many people have sought shelter in its small Old City, which has so far been spared evacuation warnings and strikes. It is where the Christian quarter is located.

With shelters full, displaced people have been sleeping in cars or tents, but many have left since the Israeli army claimed on Tuesday that Hezbollah members were operating in the area, according to the AFP correspondent.

On Wednesday night, a drone strike landed near a park in Tyre where dozens of displaced Syrians were sheltering in tents, the correspondent reported.

Locals have organised a petition calling for Tyre to be declared an “open city” free of any armed presence except Lebanon’s military. It has so far garnered around 250 signatures, including local lawyers and intellectuals.

Hezbollah has a strong presence in Tyre, and some signatories have faced online attacks over their stance.

More than 500 people have also signed a similar petition for Nabatieh, another large south Lebanon city that has come under Israeli attack.

Since the war began on March 2, Israeli strikes have killed at least 3,526 people, Lebanon’s health ministry said Thursday (June 4, 2026).

U.S. President Donald Trump acknowledged ​having called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu crazy in an expletive-filled ‌phone exchange over fighting in Lebanon while the U.S. ​was trying to negotiate an end to hostilities ⁠with Iran.

In an interview broadcast on Wednesday (June 3, 2026), Mr. Trump was asked whether he had called the longtime Israeli leader “effing crazy” and accused him of ‌ingratitude, paraphrasing a report by Axios.

“I did,” Mr. Trump told the “Pod Force One” podcast. “I wouldn’t say angry. ‌I was a little bit perturbed at his ‌constantly fighting ⁠with Lebanon, you know.”

Mr. Trump went on to say ⁠he and Netanyahu get along very well.

According to the Axios report, which cited an unidentified U.S. official, Mr. Trump said to Netanyahu in a ​call on Monday (June 3, 2026): “You’re fucking ‌crazy. You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.”

Mr. Trump said in the interview: “At ‌some point I said, Bibi, we got to stop ​this. We got to stop it.”

Iran has said it will not agree to a ⁠deal with the U.S. to end the war that Mr. Trump and Mr. Netanyahu launched in late February, unless a ceasefire also ‌covers Lebanon, which Israel invaded in March in pursuit of the Iran-aligned Hezbollah militia that fired across the border in support of Tehran.

Hostilities have continued despite a U.S.-mediated agreement announced on Monday (June 1, 2026) that led Israel to step back from attacking the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut, and the Iran-backed ‌group to halt cross-border strikes.

Israeli drone strikes killed at least six ​people in southern Lebanon and targeted a car just south of Beirut on Wednesday (June 3, 2026), Lebanese security sources ⁠said, while Israel said it intercepted a hostile aircraft likely fired ⁠by Hezbollah.

Mr. Trump bristled when asked if Mr. Netanyahu “tricked” him into attacking Iran, saying his critics were “the enemy”.

Mr. Trump ‌has used expletives about Israel in the past, including publicly saying last year that Israel and Iran “don’t know what ​the fuck they are doing”.

Benjamin Netanyahu ​is under criticism at home after U.S. President Donald Trump declared that Israel would halt plans to attack Iran ally Hezbollah ‌in Beirut, highlighting pressure the Israeli leader faces ahead of an election polls show him ​losing.

Mr. Trump said on Monday (June 1, 2026) that Israel and Hezbollah had agreed to halt attacks on ⁠one another, hours after Mr. Netanyahu ordered new strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, prompting a warning from Iran that Israel was jeopardising Tehran’s talks with the U.S.

Lebanon’s government later announced a new ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, under which Israel would ‌halt strikes on southern Beirut and Hezbollah would stop attacks on Israel.

He’s lost control of Israeli sovereignty: Netanyahu’s political challengers

Benjamin Netanyahu’s challengers in elections due by October accused the Prime Minister of ‌having acquiesced to Mr. Trump on issues of national security.

“The location is different, the story is the ‌same,” ⁠said Naftali Bennett, a right-wing security hawk and former premier who also criticises Mr. Netanyahu over ⁠Hamas militants’ resurgence in Gaza.

“A government that has lost control of Israeli sovereignty,” Mr. Bennett said in an X post. Mr. Bennett and his coalition partner in the upcoming election, centrist Yair Lapid, have pressed for strikes against Hezbollah.

“A full protectorate”, Mr. Lapid said in an X ​post, in effect accusing Mr. Netanyahu of allowing the ‌U.S. to dictate Israeli Military policy as if Israel was an American client state.

Israel and Hezbollah have continued to trade fire despite an April 16 U.S.-brokered ceasefire. The latest conflict began on March 2 with Hezbollah firing into Israel in support of Iran.

Israel has since deepened its invasion of ‌southern Lebanon, displacing over a million people and killing more than 3,400 as it bombards areas with ​attacks it says are aimed at rooting out Hezbollah. Hezbollah has not released figures on its war dead.

Hezbollah has fired rockets and explosive drones at Israeli troops and ⁠northern Israeli towns. Israel says 26 soldiers and four civilians have been killed since March 2.

Mr. Netanyahu disputes criticism of Israel’s military operations in Lebanon, arguing that air strikes under his watch have dealt Hezbollah blows.

After Mr. Trump’s ‌announcement on Monday (June 1, 2026) of a new Israel-Hezbollah agreement, Mr. Netanyahu said Israel’s stance in the conflict “remains unchanged”.

Trump’s push for halt to attacks unreasonable: Eisenkot

“[If] Hezbollah does not cease attacking our cities and citizens — Israel will attack terror targets in Beirut,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a statement following Mr. Trump’s announcement.

Israel’s Military has continued to carry out attacks on southern Lebanon since Mr. Trump’s declaration on Monday (June 1, 2026).

On Tuesday (June 2, 2026), Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israel had refrained from carrying out strikes on Beirut at the request of the U.S. But he warned ‌that any new Hezbollah attacks on northern Israel would trigger strikes on southern Beirut suburbs, considered a stronghold of the militant ​group.

Gadi Eisenkot, a former Chief of Staff of the Israeli Military who is also running for Prime Minister, said on Monday (June 1, 2026) that Mr. Trump’s push for Israel to halt attacks ⁠was unreasonable. “There has never been an Israeli Prime Minister who accepted such a humiliating demand,” Mr. Eisenkot wrote on ⁠X.

The criticism underscores growing tensions within Israel’s political system over the extent to which military decisions should be coordinated with its closest ally, the United States. Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition partner Itamar Ben Gvir, ‌the National Security Minister, said Israel should tell Mr. Trump: “no”.

English-language Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post wrote that Israel had “found itself in the humiliating position of having to seek American approval to defend its own ​citizens.” “The United States is now actively restraining Israel from taking decisive military action,” it said in an editorial.