Israel carried out multiple airstrikes across southern and eastern Lebanon late Monday and early Tuesday, escalating military pressure days before a key government meeting on the disarmament of Hezbollah.
One of the strikes, around 1 a.m. on Tuesday, destroyed a three-storey commercial building in the southern coastal city of Sidon, Lebanon’s third-largest city. The attack came ahead of a scheduled briefing by Lebanon’s army commander to government officials on efforts to dismantle Hezbollah’s armed presence near the Israeli border.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the strikes, saying they undermine international efforts to de-escalate tensions and weaken Lebanon’s push to restore state authority in areas long controlled by militant groups.
An Associated Press photographer at the Sidon site reported the building was located in a commercial district of workshops and mechanic shops and appeared uninhabited at the time of the strike. At least one person was taken away by ambulance, while rescue teams searched for possible victims. No fatalities were immediately reported.
Israel’s military said it targeted weapons storage facilities and infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah and Hamas, acknowledging that the sites were in civilian areas but blaming the militant groups for operating there.
The strikes follow near-daily Israeli military operations since a ceasefire brokered by the United States ended a 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war in November 2024. The ceasefire included a Lebanese commitment to disarm militant groups, a pledge Israel says has not been fully implemented.
Ahead of the attacks, Israel’s Arabic-language military spokesman Avichay Adraee issued evacuation warnings on social media for villages in the eastern Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that one targeted home belonged to Sharhabil al-Sayed, a Hamas military commander killed in an Israeli drone strike in May 2024. No casualties were reported in those areas.
Earlier on Monday, a separate drone strike on a vehicle in the southern village of Braikeh wounded two people, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. Israel said the strike targeted two Hezbollah members.
Lebanon’s army has already begun disarming Palestinian militant groups, while the government says all areas south of the Litani River will be cleared of Hezbollah’s armed presence by the end of 2025. The issue is expected to dominate a government meeting on Thursday attended by army commander Gen. Rudolph Haikal.
Despite the ceasefire, Israel has continued airstrikes across Lebanon, actions that the U.N. says have killed at least 127 civilians since the fighting officially ended.
Erizia Rubyjeana
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