Israel has been aggressively ignoring the ongoing ceasefire with Lebanon since it was just put in place in November, mostly with occupation of hilltop sites inside Lebanon and near daily airstrikes against Lebanese towns and villages. Overnight, they ignored it even more, launching a ground invasion in multiple parts of the south.
Israeli troops raided a firing position on a ridge near the border, seizing weapons nearby, and then raided the Labbouneh area, where they claimed to have found and confiscated explosive devices hidden in the thicket.
The military also claimed an operation against a secret Hezbollah underground facility, but did not elaborate on where exactly that was supposed to be. They claimed the raids were based on “intelligence information” but did not indicate where that new intelligence came from.
Such ground operations, unsurprisingly, are not allowed under the terms of the current ceasefire, and Israel was meant to inform the overseers of the ceasefire to the existence of any problematic facilities, to allow the Lebanese Army to dismantle them instead of getting invaded yet again. There is no indication that Israel gave anyone advanced notice before this latest incursion.
Israel has been carrying out near constant attacks on Lebanon since the ceasefire at least nominally was meant to end them. Most of those attacks have been in the form of drone strikes, and another person was killed in a drone strike Tuesday in Babliyeh.
As also is so common, the IDF issued a statement afterward claiming that the person killed was a high-ranking Hezbollah commander, in this case saying he “had been involved in coordinating rocket fire toward Israeli territory.”
Since Hezbollah has not fired a single rocket toward Israel since the ceasefire went into effect in November, it seems that person, if he was Hezbollah at all, was unlikely to be actively involved. Israel offered no evidence of the allegation, of course, but rather issued the statement and it was cited without question in Israeli media outlets.
