IDF strikes Hamas, Hezbollah targets deep in eastern and southern Lebanon

Israel launched a series of airstrikes deep inside eastern and southern Lebanon on Monday, which the Israel Defense Forces said targeted buildings used by Hamas and Hezbollah.

The strikes came after the IDF issued public evacuation warnings to residents of four villages in southern Lebanon, instructing civilians to leave buildings near sites it said were being used by the two terror groups.

It was the first such warning issued by the military this year.

In two separate posts on X, the military’s Arabic-language spokesman, Colonel Avichay Adraee, said the military would hit Hezbollah sites in Kfar Hatta and Ain al-Tinah, and Hamas sites in Annan and Al-Manara.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said the home targeted in Al-Manara belonged to Sharhabil Sayed, a Hamas leader in Lebanon who was killed by Israel in 2024.

An AFP photographer in Kfar Hatta, in south Lebanon, saw dozens of families flee the village after the warning was issued amid drone activity in the area, adding that ambulances and fire trucks were on standby.

???????? الغارات الإسرائيلية التي استهدفت مبنى في قرية عين التينة بالبقاع اللبناني بثلاثة صواريخ#لبنان #الاحتلال_الإسرائيلي pic.twitter.com/izO2Pi7JvN

— ديوان (@DiwanDaily) January 5, 2026

Despite a year-old ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel carries out regular strikes in Lebanon, usually explaining that the terror group’s activities are in violation of the ceasefire understandings.

At least 350 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon since the ceasefire, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry reports. According to the UN, that tally included at least 127 civilians, as of November.

Two people were killed in an Israeli strike that targeted a vehicle on Sunday, around 10 kilometers (six miles) from the border, the Lebanese health ministry said.

While Israel’s strikes in Lebanon usually target Hezbollah, the IDF has targeted Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups in the country.

In November, the IDF carried out strikes on the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in Sidon, in what it said targeted a Hamas compound. The strikes killed 13 people.

It has also hit Hamas’s ally in Lebanon, al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya (Islamic Group), which is affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. The group claimed responsibility for multiple rocket attacks against Israel before the ceasefire.

Lebanon has faced mounting pressure from the United States and Israel to disarm Hezbollah under a truce deal, with Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Sunday calling the disarmament efforts far from sufficient.

Israel has been ramping up its military operations in Lebanon in recent weeks, amid reports of a possible wide-scale offensive targeting Hezbollah.

According to the agreement, Hezbollah was required to pull its forces north of the Litani River and have its military infrastructure in the vacated area dismantled.

All four of Monday’s targeted villages are located north of the river.

Israel has retained troops in Lebanon at five strategic points near the border, and regularly conducts strikes that it says are against Hezbollah attempts to rearm and rebuild its strength.

Lebanon’s cabinet is to meet on Thursday to discuss the army’s progress, while the ceasefire monitoring committee — including Lebanon, Israel, the United States, France, and UN peacekeepers — is also set to meet this week.