Lebanon reported Israeli strikes on the country’s south on Saturday (June 13, 2026) shortly after the Israeli army issued an evacuation warning for 20 locations including the city of Nabatieh ahead of raids there.

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The state-run National News Agency (NNA) said Israeli airstrikes hit several areas covered by the warning, including the villages of Rihan and Sujud, located not far from Nabatieh.

The Israeli army warning urged residents to “evacuate your homes immediately and move to the north of the Zahrani River”, around 45 kilometres (28 miles) from the southern border with Israel.

The Israeli army last month declared all areas south of the river “combat zones”, and has since been striking the area.

The NNA late Friday (June 12, 2026) reported explosions and artillery shelling near the Ali Taher hills overlooking Nabatieh.

On Friday (June 12, 2026), Hezbollah, which has kept up attacks on Israeli troops who have invaded south Lebanon, said its fighters had confronted Israeli forces advancing towards the town of Majdal Zoun.

Israel and Hezbollah have been at war since early March when the Iran-backed group drew Lebanon into the West Asia conflict with rocket fire at Israel to avenge the killing of Iran’s supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes.

Israel launched a massive campaign of airstrikes and a ground invasion, killing more than 3,700 people in Lebanon, authorities say.

Neither Israel nor Hezbollah have respected an April ceasefire, and a conditional truce deal announced this month after the fourth round of direct Lebanese-Israeli negotiations in Washington has also failed to halt the fighting.

Hezbollah has rejected the direct talks and the conditional agreement, which requires it to cease attacks but makes no mention of Israel doing so or withdrawing troops from Lebanon.

Iran insists that Lebanon must be part of any agreement to end the wider West Asia war, and a senior U.S. official said on Friday (June 12, 2026) that a peace deal with Iran “includes Lebanon”.

But Lebanon’s leaders have accused Tehran of treating Lebanon as a “bargaining chip”.

Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Fayyad on Saturday (June 13, 2026) urged Lebanon to take advantage of any deal to end the Iran war that includes the country.

“We want the Lebanese state to negotiate for itself, and nobody is suggesting forfeiting this role,” Mr. Fayyad said, “however, the state must abandon the policy of being crushed in the face of the Israelis and submission to the Americans.”

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said in a statement on X on Saturday (June 13, 2026) that Lebanon faces “a fateful test”.

“Either its people unite around a sovereign state that monopolises weapons, upholds the law and protects citizens irrespective of their affiliation or position, or it remains hostage to the logic of militias,” the statement said.

The Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah weapons storage facilities in several south Lebanon towns on Wednesday (November 19, 2025), and accused the group of rebuilding its capabilities close to the border.

The Israeli military has kept up frequent air strikes in Lebanon in spite of a ceasefire sealed last November that sought to end more than a year of hostilities with Iran-backed Hezbollah.

The latest raids came a day after 13 people were killed in a strike that Israel said had targeted Hamas members in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon — the deadliest attack since the truce came into effect.

Israel’s military said Wednesday (November 19, 2025) that it had struck “several weapons storage facilities belonging to Hezbollah’s rocket unit in southern Lebanon”, calling such sites “a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon”.

It had previously warned residents to evacuate the area around sites in the southern Lebanese towns of Deir Kifa, Shehur, Ainata and Tayr Felsay.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) later said raids hit all four locations.

In Deir Kifa, Lebanese soldiers deployed near the targeted building, which collapsed after the strike, an AFP correspondent saw.

An AFP journalist in Tayr Felsay saw fireballs and smoke erupt after the raid there.

In its evacuation warnings on X, the Israeli military had said it would strike Hezbollah “military infrastructure… in response to Hezbollah’s prohibited attempts to rebuild its activities in the area”.

‘Dozens’ of sites

In a subsequent statement, the military singled out the town of Beit Lif, just a few kilometres from the Israeli border.

It accused Hezbollah of rebuilding “dozens of terrorist infrastructure sites in the area of the village, including headquarters and weapons storage facilities”, some inside civilian homes.

Lebanon says Israel is violating the truce with its strikes, and by maintaining troops in five areas of the country’s south.

Under heavy U.S. pressure and fears of expanded Israeli attacks, Lebanon has committed to disarming Hezbollah, but the militant group has rejected the idea of handing over its weapons.

Earlier on Wednesday (November 19, 2025), Lebanon’s Health Ministry said one person was killed and 11 others wounded in an Israeli strike on a vehicle in south Lebanon’s Tiri that Israel said killed a Hezbollah operative.

The NNA reported that the man killed worked for the local municipality, and said the strike took place as a university bus carrying students passed by, wounding some on board.

On Tuesday (November 18, 2025), Israel said it struck a Hamas training compound in south Lebanon’s Ain al-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp.

The Palestinian militant group denied it had military installations in Lebanon’s refugee camps and called Israel’s claims “lies”.