Israeli jets strike southern Lebanon towns, escalating near-daily
attacks
[November 07, 2025]
By KAREEM CHEHAYEB and ABBY SEWELL
BEIRUT (AP) — Israeli jets struck several towns in southern Lebanon on
Thursday after urging residents to leave, marking an escalation in their
near-daily strikes on the country.
The airstrikes came hours after militant group Hezbollah urged the
Lebanese government not to enter negotiations with Israel.
Israeli Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee warned residents in Tayba
near the border, Teir Debba located just east of the coastal city of
Tyre, and Aita al-Jabal in southern Lebanon, to flee 500 meters (about
1,600 feet) away from residential buildings they are targeting, which
they say have been used by Hezbollah. It later issued more warnings for
the towns of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah and Kfar Dounin.
The Israeli military said it targeted military infrastructure for
Hezbollah in those areas, including “weapons storage facilities...
constructed in the center of civilian-populated areas.”
It accused the group of rebuilding its capabilities almost a year after
a U.S.-brokered ceasefire went into effect that ended a monthslong war.
While most residents evacuated the threatened areas ahead of the
strikes, Lebanon's health ministry reported one person wounded.
“We will not allow Hezbollah to rearm themselves, to recover, build back
up its strength to threaten the state of Israel,” Israeli government
spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian said at a briefing Thursday.
The strikes came as Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and his
government met in Beirut to follow up on a plan drafted by the Lebanese
military to disarm Hezbollah and other non-state armed groups in the
country. Information Minister Paul Morcos said, following the meeting,
that the cabinet “commended the progress (the army) has made... despite
continued obstacles, foremost among which is the continuation of Israeli
hostilities.”
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has been critical of Israel’s strikes and
ongoing occupation of five hilltop points on Lebanese territory but has
said he is open to negotiations with Israel to end the tensions.
Aoun said in a statement after Thursday's strikes that “every time
Lebanon expresses its openness to peaceful negotiations... Israel
intensifies its aggression.”
“Nearly a year has passed since the ceasefire came into effect, and
during that time, Israel has spared no effort to demonstrate its
rejection of any negotiated settlement between the two countries," he
said. "Your message has been received.”
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People inspect the site of a building destroyed by an Israeli
airstrike in the village of Teir Debba, southern Lebanon, Thursday,
Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari)
Israel says its near-daily strikes have targeted Hezbollah officials
and military infrastructure, while the Lebanese government that has
backed disarming Hezbollah say the strikes have targeted civilians
and infrastructure unrelated to the Iran-backed group.
The powerful group’s military capabilities were severely damaged in
Israel’s intense air campaign over the tiny country in 2024, but
Hezbollah have yet to disarm and its leader Sheikh Naim Kassem has
said that the group will be ready to fight no matter how limited
their capabilities might be.
Both sides have accused each other of violating the ceasefire, which
nominally ended the latest Israel-Hezbollah war last November. The
conflict started after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel
that triggered the war in Gaza.
Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of
Hamas and the Palestinians, prompting Israeli airstrikes and
artillery shelling in return. The low-level exchanges escalated into
full-scale war in September 2024.
Lebanon’s health ministry has reported more than 270 people killed
and around 850 wounded by Israeli military actions since the
ceasefire took effect. As of Oct. 9, the U.N. human rights office
had verified that 107 of those killed were civilians or
noncombatants, said spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan.
No Israelis have been killed by fire from Lebanon since the
ceasefire. Hezbollah has claimed one attack since the agreement took
effect.
Also Thursday, the U.S. Treasury announced a new set of sanctions
that it said target “financial operatives who oversee the movement
of funds from Iran” to Hezbollah, including through licensed and
unlicensed money exchanges shops that it said “fail to conduct
adequate screening on their customers” and allow Hezbollah “to take
advantage of Lebanon’s largely cash-based economy to launder illicit
money.”
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Associated Press journalist Areej Hazboun in Jerusalem contributed
to this report.
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