IDF strikes Hezbollah sites across Lebanon, kills two operatives

Military says rocket launchers, military sites hit in country’s south, eastern Beqaa Valley; two operatives killed in separate drone strikes

By Emanuel Fabian 22 November 2025, 5:31 pmUpdated at 8:13 pm
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Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Mahmoudiyeh on November 22, 2025. (Rabih DAHER / AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Mahmoudiyeh on November 22, 2025. (Rabih DAHER / AFP)

The Israeli Air Force launched a wave of airstrikes against Hezbollah targets across Lebanon on Saturday afternoon, and separately said it killed two members of the terror group in drone strikes in the country’s south

The strikes came despite a nearly year-long ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah.

The Israel Defense Forces said that its airstrikes in southern Lebanon hit several rocket launchers that were recently identified as being placed at Hezbollah military sites.

In the eastern Beqaa Valley, the military said the IAF bombed two Hezbollah military sites where it had identified activities by terror operatives, as well as weapon depots.

The IDF said the “presence of the launchers and the military activity at these sites constitutes a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”

Separately, the IDF confirmed killing two Hezbollah operatives in drone strikes in southern Lebanon.

The first strike in the town of Maifadoun, close to Nabatieh, killed Kamel Reda Qarnabash, who the IDF said was involved in restoring Hezbollah infrastructure in the area.

Lebanon’s health ministry and local media also confirmed Qarnabash’s death in the strike.

The second strike, in Houla, killed an unnamed operative who the IDF said served as Hezbollah’s local representative in the village, and as part of his role, he was responsible for liaising between the terror group and the residents “on economic and military matters.”

The IDF said the operative also “acted to seize private property for terror purposes.”

The military published footage of the strikes, adding that the “terrorists’ activities constituted a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”

Lebanon’s health ministry also said that a grenade dropped by an Israeli drone in the southern town of Shaqra wounded five people. The IDF did not immediately comment on that incident.

Additionally, on Saturday, the IDF confirmed that it killed a Hezbollah operative in a drone strike on the southern Lebanese town of Froun a day prior.

According to the IDF, the unnamed operative was targeted while driving in the town on Friday.

The military said the operative had advanced attacks against Israel and troops in violation of the November 27 Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire agreement, which required both parties to vacate southern Lebanon.

Israel, which was given 60 days to withdraw, received an extension for the deadline and remains in five strategic spots near the border.

The agreement sought to end more than a year of hostilities sparked when Hezbollah started launching near-daily attacks on northern Israel on October 8, 2023 — a day after fellow Iran-backed group Hamas invaded southern Israel, sparking the war in Gaza. The ceasefire came two months after the IDF escalated operations against Lebanon and then invaded the country, in a bid to ensure the safe return home of some 60,000 people displaced from northern Israel as a result of Hezbollah’s attacks.

The US-brokered ceasefire agreement envisions the Lebanese military and international peacekeeping mission UNIFIL taking control of southern Lebanon and dismantling Hezbollah’s infrastructure there, though Israel has accused them of failing in that mission. The US has also sought to exert pressure on the Lebanese government to make Hezbollah hand over its weapons, but the group has so far refused to do.

Lebanon and UNIFIL both accuse Israel of repeatedly violating the ceasefire in Lebanon.

Since the start of the November 2024 ceasefire, the IDF has killed more than 330 Hezbollah operatives in strikes, including 20 in the past month alone, according to the military.

Israel says the operatives were violating the terms of the truce, which allows the IDF to respond to immediate threats.

An Israeli strike Tuesday night on the Ain al-Hilweh camp for Palestinian refugees in southern Lebanon killed 13 people. The IDF said the strike targeted a Hamas training facility in the camp, which is located on the outskirts of the coastal city of Sidon, and all 13 fatalities were Hamas operatives.

A funeral of those killed in an Israeli air strike in Lebanon’s Ain al-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon on November 20, 2025. (Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP)

A secondary school in the camp said in a statement on its Facebook page on Thursday that two of its students were killed, publishing an image of two adolescent boys.

UNIFIL chief says force ‘remains committed to supporting Lebanese army’

Marking Lebanon’s 82nd independence day, UNIFIL’s Head of Mission and Force Commander Major General Diodato Abagnara said the Lebanese army’s redeployment is key to the country’s stability.

“On Lebanon’s 82nd Independence Day, UNIFIL remains committed to supporting the Lebanon Army — our close partner in strengthening stability in the south. Their full redeployment across south Lebanon is essential for extending state authority,” he wrote on X.

UNIFIL has been deployed since 1978 to separate Israel and Lebanon, and numbers some 10,000 personnel from almost 50 countries. In August, the UN Security Council voted to end UNIFIL’s mission in 2027.

Israel has long argued that the observer force has failed in its mission, doing little to block Hezbollah from building up its forces near the Israeli border over the decades.

Agencies and Times of Israel Staff contributed to this report.

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