Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon overnight into Tuesday killed at least 19 people, among them four women and three children, according to Lebanon's health ministry. The Israeli military said it had hit more than 25 sites of what it called Hezbollah infrastructure across the 24-hour window, including positions in Deir Qanoun al-Nahr and the Tyre coastal corridor.
The strikes pushed the cumulative death toll from the renewed Israel–Hezbollah fighting that erupted in early March past 3,000, the ministry said, a figure that includes hundreds of women, children and healthcare workers. More than one million Lebanese have been displaced internally since the escalation began.
Hezbollah confirmed the loss of two senior commanders in the Deir Qanoun strike but did not name them publicly. The group's political bureau released a statement late on Tuesday warning that "the patience of the resistance has limits" — language that Lebanese commentators read as a warning that retaliatory rocket fire over the Israeli border could resume after a six-week pause.
The November 2024 ceasefire, brokered by the United States and France, was extended in early April for a further sixty days but has been observed only in fragments. UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon say Israeli ground operations continue in at least four villages south of the Litani river, in violation of the agreement's withdrawal timetable.
Lebanese president Joseph Aoun, who took office in January 2025 with explicit American and Saudi backing, on Tuesday convened an emergency security council meeting in Beirut. He has so far resisted pressure from a section of his cabinet to demand a full UN Security Council debate on the violations, fearing the move would crystallise the country's rupture from the international consensus on the November agreement.
In Washington, State Department spokespeople said Secretary Rubio had spoken with both Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr Aoun and had urged "maximum restraint". The administration has resisted European calls for it to publicly attribute responsibility for the unravelling of the ceasefire.