Israel Seizes Strategic Lebanon Ridge, Widens Strikes Into Bekaa Valley for First Time Since June
A night of Israeli airstrikes hit seven locations across southern Lebanon and the western Bekaa Valley, killing at least five people, hours after the military announced it had seized a key ridge overlooking the south.
Israel's military carried out an overnight bombing campaign across southern Lebanon and, for the first time since June, into the western Bekaa Valley, killing at least five people and wounding 24 others, according to a preliminary toll from Lebanon's Health Ministry cited by The National.
Strikes hit at least seven separate locations, including the Nabatiyeh district, Ramadiyeh in the Tyre district, the village of Mayfadoun, Zawtar, Ain Al-Tineh in the western Bekaa, and the Wadi Al Salouqi and Wadi Al Hujeir areas. An Israeli strike on a residential building in Mayfadoun killed an 18-year-old woman and injured five others. Several of the strikes landed outside Israel's declared southern "security zone," a expansion Lebanese officials say breaches the terms of the fragile ceasefire arrangement.
A Ridge With Symbolic Weight
The barrage came hours after Israel announced it had taken operational control of the Ali Al Taher ridge, a strategic elevated position overlooking southern Lebanon that had reportedly housed Hezbollah fighters in underground tunnels. Retired Lebanese Brig. Gen. Mounir Shehadeh warned the move risks becoming more than a one-off operation: "the real danger is that control of Ali Taher shifts from a limited operation into a gradual pattern of territorial expansion."
Hezbollah condemned the strikes in a statement accusing Israel of continuing "to escalate its aggression and crimes against Lebanon through killing, shelling, destruction, and the systematic demolition of homes and villages."
IT IS NOT SO MUCH THE STRATEGIC POSITION OF ALI TAHER THAT IS PROVOKING THE INTENSITY OF THIS FIGHT.
Some regional analysts see a domestic political dimension as well. Karim Emile Bitar, a Middle East expert at Sciences Po Paris, argued the timing is tied to Israel's own political calendar, with elections expected in October 2026 and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party polling below its 2023 levels.
Lebanon's government has repeatedly appealed to the United States and France, the ceasefire's guarantors, to rein in the strikes, but has stopped short of threatening retaliation that could reignite full-scale war. No further Israeli operations were announced as of Saturday evening.