IDF troops raid southern Lebanon town before dawn, kill municipal employee
Military says soldiers fired on suspect who ‘posed immediate threat’ during operation in Blida; Lebanese president tells his army to confront any Israeli incursion
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleEmanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
Israeli troops raided a town in southern Lebanon overnight and killed a municipal worker who was sleeping in the municipality building, Lebanese state media said Thursday morning.
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed the incident, saying it had opened fire on a suspect during an operation to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure in the town of Blida.
Following the incident, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Thursday instructed the commander of the army to “confront any Israeli incursion” into southern Lebanon.
According to Lebanon’s official National News Agency, IDF troops entered Blida at around 1:30 a.m. with several military vehicles and stormed the town hall.
At the municipality building, the troops killed Ibrahim Salameh, an employee who had been sleeping there, the report said. The Israeli soldiers withdrew at around 4 a.m., and the Lebanese army later entered the town hall and recovered the municipal worker’s body, NNA added.
The IDF said that during the raid, troops identified a suspect in a building and began a “suspect arrest procedure.”
“Once an immediate threat to the soldiers was identified, [the troops] opened fire to remove the threat, and a hit was identified,” the IDF said.
قوات الاحتلال الإسرائيلي دخلت ليلا إلى بلدة #بليدا الحدودية واقتحمت مبنى البلدية وأعدمت موظف البلدية "ابراهيم سلامة" أثناء نومه في البلدية ما أدى لارتقائه شهيدًا#جنوب_لبنان pic.twitter.com/JYnjwvOZh8
— Hasan fakih (@hasanfakih24) October 30, 2025
The military said the shooting was under further investigation.
The municipal building, according to the IDF, was recently exploited by Hezbollah for “terror activity under the guise of civilian infrastructure.”
“This is another example of a pattern of behavior that endangers the residents of Lebanon and reflects Hezbollah’s cynical exploitation of civilian infrastructure for terror purposes,” the army said.
An Israeli military source confirmed that Lebanese army troops arrived at the area only after the IDF withdrew, and stressed that there was no confrontation between the sides.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam condemned the incident, calling it “a blatant attack on the institutions and sovereignty of the Lebanese state.”
من مكان تصفية موظف بلدية بليدا الشهيد ابراهيم سلامة على ايدي قوة من الإحتلال التي توغلت فجر اليوم الى مركز البلدية بعمق اكثر من الف متر داخل الأراضي اللبنانية. pic.twitter.com/z5BZzjKcGl
— Ahmad Hamieh???????????????? (@Ahmadhamieh313) October 30, 2025
Later Thursday, the IDF said it carried out strikes in southern Lebanon targeting Hezbollah infrastructure.
The targets included a rocket launcher and a tunnel shaft belonging to Hezbollah in the Mahmoudiyeh area, next to the town of Jarmaq, according to the military.
The IDF said the presence of the Hezbollah infrastructure in the area “constitutes a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”
צה״ל תקף מטרות טרור של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה בלבנון
לפני זמן קצר, צה״ל בהובלת פיקוד הצפון ובאמצעות חיל האוויר, תקף תשתיות טרור, משגר ופיר של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במרחב אל מחמודיה שבדרום לבנון.
הימצאותן של התשתיות במרחב מהוות הפרה של ההבנות בין ישראל ללבנון.
צה״ל ימשיך לפעול על… pic.twitter.com/hGyjQtAJto
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) October 30, 2025
The military has repeatedly struck what it said were Hezbollah targets whose presence or actions violated the November 27 ceasefire, which ended over a year of conflict initiated by Hezbollah.
The US-brokered ceasefire with Hezbollah came after two months of open conflict in south Lebanon, which Israel invaded in a bid to ensure the return home of some 60,000 northerners displaced by Hezbollah’s near-daily attacks. The rocket attacks began on October 8, 2023 — a day after fellow Iran-backed terror group Hamas invaded southern Israel, sparking the war in Gaza.
The ceasefire required both Israel and Hezbollah to vacate southern Lebanon, to be replaced by the Lebanese armed forces. Israel has withdrawn from all but five strategic posts along the border.
Since the ceasefire, the IDF said, it has killed over 330 Hezbollah operatives in strikes, hit hundreds of Hezbollah sites, and conducted over 1,000 raids and other small operations in southern Lebanon.
Weakened by the war and still facing regular Israeli strikes, Hezbollah is under internal and international pressure to hand over its weapons, and the Lebanese army has drawn up a plan to disarm it.
US envoy Morgan Ortagus visited Lebanon on Tuesday and met with Aoun, pressing the country’s military to “full implement its plan” to disarm Hezbollah and “bring all weapons under state control,” she said in a statement a day later.
The Lebanese presidency said that Aoun pressed Ortagus over the need to “halt the ongoing Israeli violations.”
Agencies contributed to this report.
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