IDF says it struck Hezbollah sites after terror group’s bomb wounded 2 troops

Southern Lebanon saw renewed tensions over the weekend, with two IDF soldiers wounded by a Hezbollah roadside bomb and Israeli and Lebanese troops facing off near the military’s buffer zone, as UN peacekeepers warned of the challenges ahead when their force withdraws at the end of the year.

Two IDF soldiers were lightly injured by a Hezbollah explosive device in southern Lebanon on Saturday morning, prompting Israeli strikes on the terror group’s sites, the military said.

According to the IDF, an engineering vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb planted by Hezbollah inside the military’s southern Lebanon buffer zone.

Two soldiers were injured in the blast and taken to a hospital in good condition, the military said, adding that their families were notified.

The incident came amid heightened tensions in southern Lebanon, where Israeli forces have occupied a swath of territory since renewed war broke out in March against the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group, and as questions mount over the future security arrangements in the area.

And it came a day after Israeli troops advanced toward a Lebanese army position in the southern village of Deir Mimas, leading to a brief standoff between the two sides.

Under a framework agreement between Israel and Lebanon, the Lebanese army is supposed to gradually take control of southern Lebanon as Hezbollah disarms and Israeli forces withdraw. Progress has been slow, however, with Israel saying it will remain in the area as long as Hezbollah poses a threat.

In Deir Mimas on Friday, two Israeli tanks advanced along a road toward the village before stopping in front of an earthen barricade, beyond which Lebanese army vehicles were stationed, according to an AFP photographer at the scene.

The Lebanese army said Israeli forces approached an observation post established on September 10 in coordination with ceasefire monitors and launched stun grenades “in its vicinity.”

In response, the Lebanese army “reinforced the post, and a state of heightened alert ensued between the two sides,” it said.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported that Israeli troops threw six stun grenades. According to AFP, Lebanese troops pulled back about 100 meters but remained facing the Israeli tanks.

The Lebanese army said the Israeli forces later left the area, allowing its personnel to return to their “main position” in the village.

The Lebanese army has established positions in Deir Mimas and elsewhere along the edge of the Israeli-controlled zone, but has stayed out of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.

Peacekeeping chief says smooth transition critical

Also on Saturday, the head of United Nations peacekeepers in Lebanon said that it was critical to ensure other UN agencies and Lebanese troops could assume the force’s responsibilities before it begins withdrawing at the end of the year.

Maj. Gen. Diodato Abagnara of Italy spoke to Reuters from a position operated by the UN peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, which has monitored hostilities in southern Lebanon for nearly 50 years.

Since the war erupted in March, UNIFIL has also provided security escorts for humanitarian aid convoys to residents in a small cluster of predominantly Christian southern Lebanese towns now encircled by Israeli troops. Residents in much of the rest of southern Lebanon have been displaced by Israeli strikes and evacuation orders.

The UN Security Council has ordered UNIFIL to begin withdrawing at the end of 2026, raising concerns over whether aid deliveries can continue and how the force can transfer its positions to Lebanese troops.

“There are other United Nations entities here in the south, and so what is very important for us [is] to conduct a very smooth transition to different entities, or for the future of a new mission,” Abagnara told Reuters.

He said UNIFIL was already working with the UN’s country team to ensure humanitarian assistance in Israeli-occupied areas and to share information with the Lebanese army about “sensitive areas [and] how they can manage this situation.”

Abagnara acknowledged that it could be “very difficult” to hand over some UNIFIL posts to Lebanese troops, given that more than half lie within areas now controlled by Israeli forces.

Diplomats have expressed concern that UNIFIL’s departure will mean the loss of the UN’s “eyes and ears” in southern Lebanon.

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.

Abagnara spoke from a position overlooking Mansouri, a town where Israeli forces have been carrying out demolitions since ordering residents to leave in June, despite the ceasefire. Reuters reporters at the scene saw excavators knocking down trees and multi-story homes.

Abagnara described the demolitions as “another violation” of UN Security Council resolutions on Lebanon. The IDF has said it is destroying Hezbollah infrastructure across southern Lebanon. Israel says the terror group routinely operates from within villages near the border.

As a US-backed plan for the Lebanese army to disarm Hezbollah and take control of southern Lebanon has stalled, diplomatic efforts are underway to address the vacuum that could be left by UNIFIL’s withdrawal.

Lebanon has sought an extension of the force’s mandate, while other countries have discussed a new multinational mission, though it remains unclear what mandate such a force would have.

Abagnara said an extension would be “a great honor,” but that without a new Security Council decision, UNIFIL would have to stop operating at the end of the year.

“It’s not a long time,” he said. “The presence of United Nations in the south is very, very essential. And according to me, more now than ever.”

Hezbollah dragged Lebanon into the war on March 2 in support of its Iranian patrons, prompting massive Israeli airstrikes and a subsequent ground invasion of southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese army’s deployment was also the focus of talks Thursday between Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, French President Emmanuel Macron and Jordan’s King Abdullah II, who met to muster international support for the force as it seeks to take control of southern Lebanon.