Israel Steps Up Lebanon Strikes As Netanyahu Orders Escalation.

Beirut; May 2026: The Israeli army intensified strikes in southern Lebanon yesterday early fall of the night (Monday – May 25), as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the military to escalate its offensive in Lebanon in an effort to “crush” Hezbollah. The airstrikes come as the United States and Iran seek to finalise the terms of an agreement to end the Middle East conflict, which could include the Lebanon front, where Israel and Hezbollah have waged war since March 02nd.

Despite a ceasefire that came into effect on April 17th, Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah have continued to exchange fire on a near-daily basis. “I have ordered an even greater acceleration of our operations”, Netanyahu said while speaking to media reporters. “It is true that they are attacking us with drones, including fibre-optic drones, but we have teams working on countermeasures and we will solve this issue. We will intensify our blows, increase our firepower, and we will crush them”.

The Israeli air force carried out successive strikes in the Bekaa valley in eastern Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA). Dozens of Israeli strikes earlier targeted several towns and villages in southern Lebanon in the early hours, killing three people in two cars and on a motorcycle, NNA reported. Israeli airstrikes then targeted several towns near the ancient city of Tyre, according to the state-run agency. Those strikes came after Israel issued evacuation orders for 10 villages, accusing Hezbollah of breaching the truce.

“In light of Hezbollah’s violation of the ceasefire agreement, the Israel Defense Forces are compelled to operate against it with force”, the military’s Arabic-language spokesman Colonel Avichay Adraee said in a social media post, listing the names of the villages. Hezbollah yesterday have said that it had targeted 03 barracks and a military post in northern Israel in response to the violation of the ceasefire by the Jewish state. According to Lebanese authorities, Israeli strikes since early March have killed more than 3,100 people.

The Israeli military also announced on Monday that a soldier had been killed the previous day in southern Lebanon. That brings the number of Israeli soldiers killed since the outbreak of hostilities with Hezbollah to 23. 01 civilian contractor has also been killed.

Two far-right ministers called for an expansion of Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon. “There is an urgent need to put an end to the threat posed by Hezbollah’s explosive drones”, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who lives in an occupied West Bank settlement, said on Telegram. “For every explosive drone strike, 10 buildings must fall in Beirut”.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, another figurehead of the Israeli far-right, called for a “return to intensive warfare” and for “taking control” of the Zahrani River, located further north than the Litani River. The Israeli army, which controls a strip of land approximately 10 kilometres deep in Lebanese territory, has designated the Litani River as the boundary of the area to be cleared of Hezbollah fighters.

Yesterday (Monday – 25th May) Lebanese President Joseph Aoun defended his decision to hold talks with Israel, adding that his demand for a complete Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon was “non-negotiable”. Lebanon and Israel, which do not have diplomatic relations, are about to hold another round of negotiations in Washington on June 02nd and 03rd, preceded by a meeting of military officials from both countries at the Pentagon on May 29.

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem reiterated his opposition in a direct negotiations between Lebanon and Israel on Sunday evening and repeated his refusal to have his movement to disarm.

Team Maverick.