IDF strikes Hezbollah Radwan Force training site, weapons depots in southern Lebanon

The Israel Defense Forces announced on Friday that it had carried out strikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, including a training compound used by the terror group’s elite Radwan Force.

According to the IDF, the site was used to train operatives for planning and carrying out attacks against Israeli forces and civilians, including live-fire drills and weapons training. The military said it also struck additional Hezbollah structures used to store weapons in recent periods.

The military said the activity constituted a violation of the ceasefire understandings between Israel and Lebanon and vowed to continue acting against threats posed by Hezbollah.

Separately, the IDF launched an interceptor missile toward what it initially said was a “suspicious aerial target” near Bar’am, close to Israel’s border with Lebanon.

The interceptor missile caused rocket warning sirens to be activated in the area for the first time in months.

After reviewing the matter, the IDF said the interceptor was launched at a “false target.” A source close to Hezbollah told Reuters the Iran-backed terror group was not linked to the incident.

???? Israeli warplanes have carried out an airstrike on the area of Wadi al-Akhdar in Iqlim al-Tuffah and the Sajed hills, according to our correspondent in the South. More than five Israeli warplanes are flying over South Lebanon at a low altitude. pic.twitter.com/DZ2cLhSLBc

— L'Orient Today (@lorienttoday) January 2, 2026

Lebanon has faced mounting pressure from the United States and Israel to disarm Hezbollah under a truce deal, with Defense Minister Israel Katz warning that Israel would “act as necessary” if Beirut fails to curb the group’s arsenal.

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

The US-brokered truce with Hezbollah came after two months of open conflict in Lebanon, including an IDF ground operation in the country’s south in a bid to enable the safe return of some 60,000 residents of northern Israel displaced by the terror group’s near-daily attacks. The rocket and drone attacks began on October 8, 2023 — a day after fellow Iran-backed terror group Hamas invaded southern Israel, sparking the war in Gaza.

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.

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.

Hezbollah is under internal and international pressure to hand over its weapons, with the Lebanese army having drawn up a plan to disarm it.

Jerusalem has questioned the Lebanese military’s effectiveness in disarming Hezbollah and has threatened to intensify military action.

Since the ceasefire, the IDF says it has killed over 380 Hezbollah operatives and members of allied terror groups in strikes, hit hundreds of Hezbollah sites, and conducted over 1,200 raids and other small operations in southern Lebanon.