Israeli air and artillery strikes struck the southern Lebanese city of Tyre and other parts of southern Lebanon despite an Iranian warning to stop attacks there. Lebanon’s health ministry said at least eight people were killed in Tyre and 32 injured; Lebanese media put the wider toll across southern Lebanon at a minimum of 13 dead. Officials cautioned the figures were provisional as rescue teams continued searching rubble.
The Israeli military issued a new evacuation order telling residents of Tyre and surrounding areas to move north beyond the Zahrani river, about 30 km from the border. For the first time the order explicitly included the city’s Christian quarter in the north-west, which the military said had seen Hezbollah activity. The warning prompted many residents to flee, producing heavy traffic on roads leaving the city.
Two people were reported killed in a pre-dawn drone strike in Kfar Roummane near Nabatieh, and a later strike in Tyre’s al-Raml area reportedly injured five more. The Israeli military said it had been “compelled to act forcefully” in Tyre because of what it described as Hezbollah violations of a ceasefire and attacks on northern Israel. Separately, Israeli forces said troops in the Ramim Ridge area shot dead an infiltrator who crossed from Lebanon and opened fire.
Hezbollah said its fighters struck a new Israeli military site in Maroun al-Ras with rockets and attacked troops and vehicles further north with assault drones.
The sorties in Lebanon came amid a fragile regional escalation that followed an Israeli strike in Beirut targeting Hezbollah. That strike sparked exchanges of fire between Israel and Iran — the first since a truce in April — and prompted Iran to warn it could strike Israel again if attacks in Lebanon continued. Iran’s armed forces later said they had launched about 30 barrages of ballistic missiles at Israeli targets, which the Israeli military said were intercepted.
Israel responded with two waves of air strikes inside Iran, saying they hit air-defence systems and a petrochemical complex; Iran’s state broadcaster reported two officers in its air-defence force were killed. Iran announced it had stopped operations after delivering what it called a “painful response,” but warned of “more severe and crushing measures” if Israel carried out further attacks, including in Lebanon.
The recent fighting complicates ongoing diplomatic efforts. The BBC report said the conflict is affecting President Donald Trump’s attempts to negotiate a broader settlement to end the war involving the US, Israel and Iran. Washington had pressed Israel recently to scale back operations against Hezbollah to create space for a deal with Iran.
Lebanon was drawn into the wider war on 2 March when Hezbollah launched rockets in retaliation for an Israeli strike that killed Iran’s supreme leader, triggering a sustained Israeli bombing campaign and incursions into southern Lebanon. Lebanon’s health ministry says at least 3,666 people have been killed in the country in the conflict; Israeli authorities report about 30 soldiers and four civilians killed on both sides of the border.
A US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon took effect on 16 April but fighting has continued. Last week Israel and Lebanon agreed to renew a ceasefire, a deal Hezbollah rejected, demanding a complete Israeli withdrawal while Israel has maintained it will continue operations in southern Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel was holding fire “at the moment” but warned the struggle with Iran and Hezbollah was not over and vowed to respond with overwhelming force to any further attacks. An Israeli official said strikes on Iran were paused at the US president’s request.
