With US-brokered talks between Israel and Lebanon just days away and the “ceasefire” still reported as in place, Israel continues to launch offensives deeper into Lebanon, with ground troops from the Golani Brigade backed by robots as they moved all the way to the Litani River, and beyond.
The IDF claimed that the troops killed “dozens” of Hezbollah fighters in close-quarters combat and had gained effective operational control over the forested area they expanded into. Six people were also reported killed in various Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon’s south.
New evacuation orders were issued for yet more towns in southern Lebanon, and Israeli forces reportedly destroyed the solar-powered water station in Deir Mimas, overlooking to the Litani River from which it pumped drinking water for the locals.
Mourners react during the funeral of people killed in an Israeli strike in Saksakiyeh, in Haret Saida, Sidon district, Lebanon May 10, 2026. REUTERS/Aziz Taher
This growing destruction and expanded offensive casts something of a pall over the direct Israel-Lebanon talks, and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam reiterated that his government wants a timeline for Israeli withdrawal, as well as US guarantees Israel will actually stop attacking.
That’s the perennial hope with Israeli ceasefires in Lebanon, that someone will actual compel Israel to cease firing somewhere along the line. Right now that hope rests with the US, though trying to coax Lebanon’s president into meeting directly with Netanyahu seems the immediate priority.
The IDF, meanwhile, claims to have killed more than 350 Hezbollah fighters since the ceasefire began, and hit 1,100 Hezbollah “targets.” The indications are that many of these targets are the like of the water station, however, and while Israel often posthumously promotes slain Lebanese to the rank of “Hezbollah commander,” the evidence is that a lot of the people they killed, both before and after the ceasefire went into effect, were innocent civilians.
The Lebanese Health Ministry puts the death toll since the ceasefire began at 380. This includes a number of women, children and paramedics, so the suggestion that over 350 of them were actually Hezbollah is certainly a vast overestimation.
