Israel said on Thursday (September 10, 2026) it demolished key tunnels built by the Iran-backed Hezbollah group beneath the strategic Ali al-Taher ridge in southern Lebanon, triggering a 4.1 magnitude tremor.

AFP journalists in the area heard several explosions. In a video shared by Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz, a huge fireball can be seen rising into the night sky.

The explosion comes a few days after Israeli authorities claimed to have taken control of the Ali al-Taher ridge, saying that the pro-Iranian Hezbollah had dug numerous tunnels there, allowing it to attack Israel from this mountainous area.

Israeli troops occupy part of southern Lebanon, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he wants to establish a “security zone” to prevent any attacks on the north of his country.

“This is strategic terrorist infrastructure that was built over two decades, with Iranian funding and planning,” Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Katz said in a joint statement.

The destruction “completes the achievement of operational control over the Ali al-Taher ridge — above and below ground”, the statement added.

The United States Geological Survey reported a 4.1 magnitude tremor in the area, after Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported that Israel carried out a “massive explosion” on the Ali al-Taher ridge in the Nabatieh region, “causing tremors and a powerful rumble”.

AFP journalists in south Lebanon also said they heard “huge explosions” on Thursday (September 11) evening.

“We were sitting there and everything shook,” Joelle Fares, who recently moved to Majayoun, told AFP.

The Israeli army said the Hezbollah infrastructure extended for more than two kilometres (1.2 miles) and contained “dozens of Iranian-made rockets, missiles, and UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), as well as machine guns, dozens of anti-tank missiles, and hundreds of mines and explosive devices”.

The underground compound also included a command centre of Hezbollah’s “Badr” unit, the army added.

A military official told AFP that some of the militants that had operated in the area of the ridge had abandoned it, while others were “eliminated by aerial strikes and artillery fire”.

The official said Hezbollah members had dug eight underground routes to move safely beneath the ridge, and several dozen explosive drones and hundreds of mines were seized by the Israeli army.

In March, Hezbollah dragged Lebanon into the Middle East war in support of its backer Iran.

There had been a lull in violence after the understanding reached between Iran and the United States in June, followed by an agreement between Lebanon and Israel.

But strikes have increased in intensity in recent days.

During negotiations, the United States, which sponsored the talks, proposed that the Lebanese army take control of the Ali al-Taher ridge, but Hezbollah refused, a source close to the parties told AFP.

Beirut authorities say Israeli strikes have killed more than 4,300 people in total since March, and Israeli forces continue to occupy a so-called “security zone” in the south.

Lebanon’s parliament on Tuesday (August 11, 2026) voted to abolish the death penalty, making it the first country in the Arab world to replace capital punishment with life imprisonment with aggravated hard labour. The legislation will come into effect after it is signed by the President and published in the Official Gazette.

According to lawmaker Imad al-Hout, who supported the bill, the legislation reduces sentences for people facing the death penalty and life imprisonment to 17 “prison years”. In Lebanon, where a prison year is generally calculated as nine months, this amounts to 12 years and nine months of actual imprisonment.

Lebanon has maintained an unofficial moratorium on executions since January 2004. However, courts have continued to hand down death sentences. At the end of 2025, 85 people were on death row, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Justice’s Directorate of Prisons.

Which countries still retain the death penalty?

According to the latest report by Amnesty International on death sentences and executions, nearly three-quarters of the world’s countries had abolished the death penalty in law or practice as of December 2025. Some countries that have abolished capital punishment in practice have retained it in law but have not carried out executions for at least 10 years.

Some countries have abolished the death penalty only for “ordinary crimes”. This means capital punishment may still be permitted for exceptional offences, such as certain crimes under military law or offences committed in exceptional circumstances.

Executions continue to rise

Despite the global decline in the use of capital punishment, executions increased sharply in 2025. Amnesty International recorded at least 2,707 executions worldwide in 2025, up 78% from 1,518 in 2024.

The increase was driven largely by Iran, where Amnesty recorded at least 2,159 executions in 2025, more than double the 972 executions recorded in 2024.

Amnesty’s figures do not include the executions believed to have been carried out in China, which continues to classify data on executions as a state secret.

Lebanon is working towards a “complete Israeli withdrawal” from areas it occupies, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said on Wednesday (July 22, 2026) on a visit to a village where Lebanon’s army recently deployed.

Also Read | Lebanon, Israel move toward implementing withdrawal agreement: U.S. officials

“We will continue mobilising our political and diplomatic efforts to secure a complete Israeli withdrawal from the south,” he said in Zawtar al-Gharbiya.

Israeli forces were previously present on the outskirts of the village following the war with Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Mr. Salam visited the town a day after Lebanese President Joseph Aoun met with his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump at the White House, where he “stressed the urgent need for a full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory”.

Under a U.S.-sponsored agreement signed last month, Lebanon’s army is meant to disarm Hezbollah, and the Israeli military is to withdraw from “pilot zones” where Lebanese forces will subsequently deploy.

Hezbollah has repeatedly rejected the agreement and refuses to lay down its weapons.

The military said on Tuesday (July 21, 2026) that Israeli forces “opened fire” near troops deploying at Zawtar al-Gharbiya.

The Israeli military said it had only fired “warning shots into the air” after Lebanese soldiers entered an area that was “not part of the pilot area”.

Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the West Asia war by attacking Israel in support of Tehran on March 2, prompting major Israeli airstrikes and a ground invasion.

After planting a Lebanese flag in Zawtar al-Gharbiya on Wednesday, Salam said “in parallel with the army’s deployment, we will continue opening roads, removing rubble, and securing essential services, enabling our people to return safely and with dignity to their homes and villages”.

‘Heads held high’

The war caused widespread destruction, mainly in the south, though violence has declined since the signing of a framework agreement between the United States and Iran last month and the Lebanon-Israel deal.

According to the United Nations, more than 700,000 people have returned to their homes over the past few weeks. In Zawtar al-Gharbiya, dozens of residents waited at the village’s entrance for permission to go check on their homes.

“We will enter the town with our heads held high, thanks to the presence of the Lebanese army,” Abbas Yaghi, 73, told AFP.

The military had told residents on Tuesday (July 21) to avoid entering the village “until the security situation stabilises”.

The army is conducting a sweep of the town, which is geographically contiguous with its Israeli-occupied neighbour, Zawtar al-Shariqya.

Israeli troops still launch intermittent strikes in surrounding towns, the latest on Nabatieh al-Fawqa.

“We will follow the army if it gives us permission to enter,” Mostapha Ammar, a 60-year-old resident of Zawtar al-Sharqiya said, hoping that Israel would withdraw from other areas.

Wafaa Ismail, 64, also from Zawtar al-Sharqiya, was not granted permission to enter the neighbouring village as Salam visited.

She expressed frustration at seeing the prime minister enter on his own, escorted by the army, saying: “He should have brought the people in with him so he could claim victory.”

The Lebanese army on Saturday (June 13, 2026) withdrew its troops from a base in a southern Lebanese village after Israeli troops advanced in an area nearby, a military official said.

Israel’s military appears to be trying to make as many gains as possible in case a U.S.-Iran agreement is reached to end the war in the region, which is likely to include Lebanon.

The departure from the Army barracks in Kfar Tebnit came as the Israeli military issued an evacuation warning for about 20 locations, including the southern city of Nabatiyeh and nearby villages.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported airstrikes on Saturday (June 13, 2026) on different villages near Nabatiyeh, including one that killed two people in Deir al-Zahrani. It added that Nabatiyeh was subjected to artillery shelling on Saturday.

A senior Lebanese military official told The Associated Press that the Lebanese army moved its forces from the Kfar Tebnit barracks following an incursion by Israeli forces into the area. The official, who did not elaborate, spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Israeli troops were likely trying to capture the strategic Ali Taher hill on the edge of Kfar Tebnit that overlooks large parts of Nabatiyeh and some of the roads that link the city with nearby villages.

Israeli troops held the Ali Taher hill for 18 years until they withdrew from Lebanon in May 2000.

Hezbollah said in statements that its fighters carried out several attacks on Saturday (June 13, 2026) including a morning one that targeted Israeli troops on the edge of Kfar Tibnit with two drones.

Hezbollah has been using fiber-optic drones since the start of the latest war inflicting casualties among Israeli troops.

In late May, Israeli troops captured a nearby strategic mountain topped with the Crusader-built Beaufort Castle in the deepest incursion into the country since 2000.

The Lebanese army said that later Saturday an Israeli drone targeted a soldier who was traveling near a hospital in Nabatiyeh, but missed. Later, however, another drone struck the soldier as he traveled on the road linking Nabatiyeh with the nearby village of Kfar Rumman, seriously wounding him.

The push on the edge of Kfar Tebnit came a day after Pakistan’s prime minister said that the United States and Iran have agreed to wording of an agreement aimed at ending their war in the Middle East and that mediators are working with both sides to finalize a deal.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Iranian state TV on Friday (June 12, 2026) that both sides were working toward signing an initial agreement declaring an end to the war “on all fronts, including Lebanon.”

Senior Hezbollah official Hussein Haj Hassan told Al Jazeera TV that they have been informed by Iranian officials that Lebanon will be part of a future ceasefire deal between the U.S. and Iran.

Iran is Hezbollah’s main backer, supplying the group with different types of weapons over the past four decades as well as billions of dollars.

Attacks by Israel and Hezbollah have continued despite a ceasefire that went into effect on April 17 and was renewed several times but remains a ceasefire in name only.

Israel continues to occupy large swaths of southern Lebanon while battling Hezbollah fighters, causing civilian casualties and damage to infrastructure. Hezbollah, which is not part of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon, has launched frequent rocket and drone attacks.

The latest Israel-Hezbollah war began on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel two days after the U.S. and Israel began their attacks on Iran.

More than 3,700 people have been killed in Lebanon in the latest fighting, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. Also, 30 Israeli soldiers and a defense contractor have been killed in or near southern Lebanon, and two civilians have been killed in northern Israel, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.

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).

Lebanon’s U.S. Embassy said on Monday (June 1, 2026) that Hezbollah had accepted a U.S. proposal for a “mutual cessation of attacks”, after Israel threatened more strikes on south Beirut on the eve of a fourth round of Israel-Lebanon negotiations.

“The Lebanese authorities received confirmation of Hezbollah’s acceptance of the U.S. proposal providing for a mutual cessation of attacks,” said an Embassy statement published by Lebanese President Joseph Aoun’s office.

Follow the West Asia war LIVE

It said the confirmation came after a telephone call between Aoun and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

On Sunday, a senior US official had told AFP that Rubio spoke with Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the ongoing diplomatic negotiations, asserting that Hezbollah must be the first to cease its attacks.

“Under the proposed arrangement, Israeli strikes on Dahiyeh would cease in exchange for Hezbollah refraining from launching attacks against Israel, with the ceasefire framework to be expanded to encompass all Lebanese territory,” the embassy statement added, referring to Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Subsequently, US President Donald Trump “called the Lebanese ambassador to the United States and indicated that he had secured Prime Minister Netanyahu’s agreement to the proposed arrangement”, the statement added.

Lebanon’s ambassador “relayed the outcome of the discussions to President Aoun, who in turn communicated it to Hezbollah”, the statement said, adding that negotiations on Tuesday and Wednesday “will continue to discuss this progress”.

This week’s negotiations in Washington are the fourth round since April, when Lebanon and Israel, who have no diplomatic relations, began landmark direct talks which Hezbollah strongly opposes.

They also come after military delegations from the two countries held security talks at the Pentagon last week.

On Sunday, the senior US official had told AFP on condition of anonymity that to advance the talks, “the United States proposed a clear sequence: Hezbollah must stop all attacks on Israel. In return, Israel would refrain from escalation in Beirut”.

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Lebanon’s Prime Minister accused Israel on Saturday (May 30, 2026) of pursuing a “scorched-earth policy” in his country’s south, urging a halt to the fighting as Israel carried out fresh airstrikes and issued evacuation warnings for more than a dozen locations.

A day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his forces had advanced deeper into Lebanon, his counterpart Nawaf Salam warned the country was facing a “dangerous” escalation, and called for “a swift and real ceasefire”.

In a televised address, Mr. Salam accused Israel of “pursuing a scorched-earth policy and collective punishment” by “destroying towns and villages, and forcing their inhabitants into exile”.

This will bring “neither security nor stability” to Israel, he said.

Still, he defended his government’s engagement with its southern neighbour, after military delegations from both countries held security talks in Washington on Friday, with more U.S.-brokered negotiations planned next week.

Mr. Salam said the outcome of the negotiations was “not guaranteed”, but called them “the least costly path for our country and our people”.

A truce to halt the fighting between Israel and Tehran-backed Hezbollah officially took effect on April 17, but has never been observed.

Both Israel and Hezbollah accuse each other of violating the ceasefire and justify their attacks by the other’s alleged breaches.

A US statement issued after Friday’s Israel-Lebanon talks made no mention of the truce, but said the “productive military-to-military discussions” would inform next week’s political meeting.

Hezbollah vehemently opposes the direct talks.

Fresh attacks

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported several Israeli attacks in the south Saturday (May 30, 2026), and the Lebanese military said two of its soldiers “were seriously wounded… by a hostile Israeli drone” near the southern city of Nabatieh.

The Israeli military issued fresh evacuation warnings covering villages near Nabatieh and others in the east of the country.

Hezbollah said it launched multiple attacks targeting northern Israel Saturday, and had also clashed with Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon.

In a statement, the group said it was confronting Israeli forces around the outskirts of the towns of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, Yohmor al-Shaqif and Dibbine, adding the troops “had not yet succeeded in taking control of the towns”.

The Israeli military told AFP that more than 25 projectiles were launched from Lebanon towards Israel on Saturday, while air alert sirens sounded in the northern cities of Karmiel and Safed for the first time since the ceasefire, according to the army’s Home Front Command.

Public broadcaster Kan aired footage shared on social media showing rockets falling into the sea off Israel’s Nahariya, near the border, sending beachgoers fleeing.

Mr. Netanyahu announced on Friday that Israeli forces had advanced beyond the Litani River, which runs around 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of the Lebanon-Israel frontier, and were “hitting Hezbollah head on”.

The Lebanese Health Ministry says that Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,371 people since March 2, when Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war in support of its backer Iran.

Hezbollah said it attacked Israel in retaliation for the death of Iran’s supreme leader in U.S.-Israeli strikes when the war erupted on February 28.

Iran has insisted that any agreement to end the wider Middle East war also cover Lebanon.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said on Wednesday (April 29, 2026) that Israel must fully implement the ceasefire between the two countries before beginning direct talks, after Israeli strikes killed more than 20 people over the last two days.

Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the West Asia war on March 2, and Israeli and Lebanese representatives have since met twice in Washington, the first such meetings in decades, for discussions that Hezbollah has categorically rejected.

(This article is part of the View From India newsletter curated by The Hindu’s foreign affairs experts. To get the newsletter in your inbox every Monday, subscribe here.)

“A whole civilisation will die, never to be brought back again.” — That’s what Donald Trump, President of the United States of America, said six days ago, issuing an ultimatum to Iran, to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran, in turn, warned that its response would deprive the U.S. and its allies of oil and gas for years.