Israel Strikes Southern Lebanon as Hezbollah Ceasefire Holds Partially

On June 1, 2026, a partial ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect. Under the agreement, brokered by the United States, Israel committed to halt strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs in exchange for Hezbollah refraining from attacking Israeli territory [1]. The next day, Israeli warplanes struck targets across southern Lebanon [2]. No bombs fell on Beirut — but for residents south of the Litani River, the distinction offered little comfort.

This pattern — ceasefires announced, ceasefires violated, ceasefires redefined — has defined the Israel-Lebanon conflict since hostilities escalated in March 2026. Since the war began on March 2, at least 3,412 people have been killed and more than 10,000 injured, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) [3]. The latest partial truce follows an earlier 10-day ceasefire agreed on April 16, which similarly failed to stop military operations in southern Lebanon [4].

A Cascade of Ceasefires

The current conflict's ceasefire architecture is layered on top of an earlier agreement. In November 2024, the United States brokered a 60-day cessation of hostilities between Israel and Lebanon. Under those terms, Hezbollah was to withdraw fighters and weapons north of the Litani River, to be replaced by 5,000 Lebanese Army troops. Israel was to withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon. A five-country monitoring panel, led by Washington, was established to oversee compliance [5].

That agreement was strained from the start. Within the first week, France reported 52 Israeli violations [6]. Israel, for its part, accused Hezbollah of violating the ceasefire by rebuilding military infrastructure, citing discovery of tunnel shafts with weapons caches south of the Litani [7]. By the time the 60-day period elapsed, Israel announced its forces would remain in southern Lebanon, arguing that the Lebanese Army had not fully deployed and in some cases had aided Hezbollah [6].

The November 2024 ceasefire ultimately collapsed in early 2026. The 10-day truce of April 16, 2026, represented a second attempt at de-escalation. Since that ceasefire, at least 380 people have been killed [8]. The June 1 partial truce — covering only Beirut — constitutes a third layer of agreement, each narrower in geographic scope than the last.

The Scale of Violations

The Lebanese government has documented Israeli breaches in painstaking detail. In January 2026, Lebanon filed a formal complaint with the United Nations detailing 2,036 Israeli violations of its sovereignty during the final three months of 2025 alone: 542 in October, 691 in November, and 803 in December [9].

Source: Lebanese Government UN Complaint

Data as of Jan 26, 2026CSV

UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, independently recorded more than 10,000 Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace and 1,400 military ground activities between the November 2024 ceasefire and the end of February 2026 [7]. In a six-month report released in July 2025, UNIFIL documented 405 Israeli airstrikes, rocket attacks, shellings, and shootings into Lebanon [10].

Specific villages have borne disproportionate consequences. In Hula, the village mayor reported that Israel destroyed 55 houses after the November 2024 ceasefire took effect [10]. Israel has continued to occupy five positions within Lebanese territory while blocking reconstruction of border villages that were leveled during active combat [10].

The UN human rights office reported in October 2025 that at least 103 civilians had been killed in Israeli attacks since the start of the November 2024 ceasefire [10]. That number has grown substantially following the 2026 escalation.

What Israel Claims — and What the Evidence Shows

Israel's stated justification for continued strikes rests on two pillars: Hezbollah rearmament and the right of self-defense.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has presented evidence of Hezbollah rebuilding military capacity south of the Litani River, in violation of ceasefire terms. IDF operations have killed armed Hezbollah operatives in the area, with subsequent searches revealing tunnel shafts containing weapons [7]. In one instance, Israel forced an Iranian aircraft suspected of ferrying weapons to Hezbollah to turn around over Syrian airspace [7]. On April 21, 2026, Israel reported that Hezbollah launched rockets at an Israeli position in Rab Thalathin and a drone into northern Israel [7].

The November 2024 ceasefire agreement includes a self-defense clause: "These commitments do not preclude either Israel or Lebanon from exercising their inherent right of self-defence, consistent with international law" [5]. A side letter from Washington to Jerusalem, portions of which were leaked, reportedly went further — pledging that Israel could "respond to threats in accordance with international law and act at any time against violations in southern Lebanon" [11]. Beyond the south, Israel was reportedly permitted to act only if the Lebanese Army proved "unable or unwilling" to address violations [11].

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has invoked these provisions broadly. His office stated that "the ceasefire does not include Lebanon," with Netanyahu pledging: "We continue to strike Hizbollah with force, precision and determination" [12].

Critics argue this interpretation stretches the self-defense clause beyond recognition. UN human rights experts warned in October 2025 that Israel's "continued violations of the ceasefire in Lebanon" were unlawful, calling on all parties to protect civilians [13]. The distinction between defensive enforcement and offensive military operations — particularly when strikes destroy civilian homes and infrastructure — remains a central point of contention.

The 'Partial' Ceasefire Problem: Who Is Covered?

The June 1 partial truce highlights a structural issue: successive ceasefire agreements have varied in which parties, geographies, and activities they cover.

Hezbollah was not a formal signatory to the November 2024 agreement, despite being the principal armed group in the fighting. The agreement was between the governments of Israel and Lebanon, with Lebanon taking responsibility for preventing Hezbollah and "all other armed groups" from conducting attacks against Israel [5].

This creates ambiguity around Palestinian factions operating in Lebanon. Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) has been targeted in Israeli strikes — PIJ commander Adham Adnan al-Othman was killed in Beirut's southern suburbs during early strikes, and a PIJ commander in Lebanon was killed alongside his 17-year-old daughter in an Israeli airstrike in Baalbek on May 17 [12].

Whether strikes against PIJ or other non-Hezbollah armed groups constitute ceasefire violations depends on whether the ceasefire's coverage extends to all military activity on Lebanese soil or only to the Israel-Hezbollah bilateral relationship. Israel has argued the former interpretation does not apply; Lebanon and its international backers have argued it does.

The June 1 agreement narrows coverage further — to Beirut specifically. Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon continue outside its scope, rendering the "partial ceasefire" label both technically accurate and functionally misleading.

International Brokers: What Washington and Paris Say

The United States and France, the two principal brokers of Lebanon ceasefire efforts, have taken divergent public positions.

Washington has urged restraint on Beirut specifically. The U.S. pushed Israel against striking Beirut for several weeks as part of a de-escalation effort, though a U.S. official acknowledged the limits of that position: "The U.S. does not expect Israel to absorb ongoing attacks on its civilians by a terrorist organization" [14]. When Israel announced plans for renewed strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs in early June, President Donald Trump intervened directly, calling Netanyahu and instructing Israel to cancel the planned strikes [3].

At the UN Security Council, however, the U.S. has blocked calls for Israel to halt operations in Lebanon unilaterally [14].

France has taken a harder line. Paris called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting on June 1, condemning Israeli strikes "in the strongest terms" and calling them "especially unacceptable because they jeopardize the temporary ceasefire between the United States and Iran" [15]. France reported 52 Israeli ceasefire violations within the first week of the November 2024 agreement [6].

Whether either government has communicated private redlines to Israel that differ from public statements remains unclear. The leaked side letter from Washington suggests a permissive private framework — one that grants Israel wider latitude to act than the ceasefire text alone would imply [11].

UNIFIL: A Shrinking Force Facing an Expanding Mandate

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), tasked with monitoring the cessation of hostilities and maintaining a buffer zone between the Blue Line and the Litani River, operates under growing constraints.

UNIFIL's personnel have declined from 10,500 at the start of 2025 to approximately 7,500 by February 2026, with further reductions planned [16]. The force operates on a budget of $553 million for fiscal year 2025–2026 [16]. Its mandate, extended in August 2025 under UN Security Council Resolution 2790, sets a final expiration date of December 31, 2026, with drawdown and withdrawal to occur throughout 2027 [16].

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has proposed a new force to replace UNIFIL [17], but no replacement has been agreed upon. As Israel has pushed past the Litani River in the 2026 conflict, Lebanese residents and analysts have questioned whether UNIFIL serves any functional purpose [18].

The Humanitarian Cost

The scale of displacement in 2026 dwarfs that of the 2006 Lebanon War. In 2006, approximately one million Lebanese were displaced during a 34-day conflict that killed over 1,100 people [19]. The November 2024 ceasefire saw returns begin, but tens of thousands were unable to go home because Israeli forces blocked access to destroyed villages [10].

The 2026 conflict has displaced over one million people again, with more than 280,000 crossing into Syria [8]. UNHCR reports that 822,000 people, including nearly 300,000 children, have registered as displaced, with 128,000 sheltering in roughly 600 collective sites [8]. As of February 2026, more than 64,000 Lebanese remained displaced from the 2024 conflict — unable to return even a year after the original ceasefire [20].

Syria itself, the top refugee-producing country globally with 5.5 million refugees [1], is absorbing Lebanese displacement while managing its own crisis — a compounding humanitarian burden with few parallels.

Source: UNHCR Population Data

Data as of Dec 31, 2025CSV

Reconstruction: $11 Billion Needed, a Fraction Delivered

The World Bank's Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment estimates total direct damage to Lebanon at $7.2 billion, with total reconstruction and recovery needs at $11 billion [21]. Damage in the south alone accounts for $4.76 billion [21]. Between October 2023 and November 2024, Israel destroyed more than 40,000 structures in southern Lebanon — roughly 25 percent of all buildings [22].

International aid has fallen far short. The World Bank approved $250 million in June 2025 as part of a broader $1 billion recovery framework [23]. France and the EU have contributed additional funds — 75 million euros from the French Development Agency, 35 million euros in grants from the EU, France, and Denmark [23]. But the total pledged — approximately $1.25 billion — covers barely 11 percent of assessed needs, and only a fraction has been disbursed [21].

Source: World Bank

Data as of Jun 25, 2025CSV

Renewed Israeli strikes compound the problem. Infrastructure rebuilt or repaired is re-damaged. Donor confidence erodes when reconstruction timelines are upended by fresh hostilities. In the first three days of the April 2026 ceasefire alone, 428 housing units were destroyed and 50 more damaged [8]. Lebanon's Prime Minister has pledged to begin rebuilding "despite Israeli violations," but the gap between stated intent and feasible action continues to widen [24].

Comparison to 2006: A Longer War, Deeper Scars

The 2006 Lebanon War lasted 34 days, killed over 1,100 Lebanese (the vast majority civilians), and displaced roughly one million people [19]. The ceasefire, brokered through UN Security Council Resolution 1701, established the framework — Hezbollah withdrawal north of the Litani, Lebanese Army deployment to the south, UNIFIL reinforcement — that the November 2024 agreement largely replicated [5].

The 2026 conflict has already surpassed the 2006 war on every metric: duration, casualties, displacement, and infrastructure destruction. Resolution 1701 held, imperfectly, for nearly two decades. Whether any current ceasefire framework can achieve similar durability remains an open question, particularly as UNIFIL faces dissolution and no agreed-upon replacement.

What Comes Next

The June 1 partial ceasefire represents a floor, not a ceiling. It protects Beirut — for now — while leaving southern Lebanon exposed to continued strikes. The gap between ceasefire language and battlefield reality is not accidental; it reflects the structural weakness of agreements that lack enforcement mechanisms, clear definitions of covered parties, and consequences for violations.

The 2,036 documented violations in three months. The 380 killed since the April truce. The $11 billion reconstruction bill with $250 million delivered. These numbers describe a situation in which the word "ceasefire" has become a term of diplomatic convenience rather than a description of conditions on the ground.

Whether the international community — particularly the United States and France — can move beyond brokering agreements toward enforcing them will determine whether Lebanon's latest ceasefire holds or joins its predecessors as another in a long series of temporary pauses in a permanent conflict.