The ceasefire in Lebanon seems as tenuous as ever, with Israeli troops carrying out a flurry of strikes across southern Lebanon, leaving at least 14 people dead and 31 others wounded, and bringing the overall death toll since the Israeli invasion began to 3,666 killed.
The largest number of casualties reported were in the city of Tyre, where 9 were killed and 28 wounded. Two were killed in a drone strike against Kfar Roummine, another was killed in an airstrike against a farm in Adchit, and a 16-year-old was reported killed in another drone strike against the town of Haboush.
The IDF claimed another person, a “Hezbollah” gunman, was slain along Ramim Ridge along the border in an exchange of gunfire. The IDF initially claimed the fighter had crossed into Israeli territory during the exchange, but some Israeli media reports seem to be disputing that claim, and suggested he was still on the Lebanese side. He has not been identified.
Emergency personnel work at the site of an Israeli strike, that killed multiple people according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry, in Deir Qanoun al-Nahr, Tyre district, southern Lebanon, May 20, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer
Israeli drones were also seen over parts of the capital city of Beirut, which was last attacked over the weekend. So far no new attacks on Beirut or its immediately surrounding suburbs have been reported.
Indications are that the war is further escalating. In Haboush, the drones that are constantly flying overhead have taken to broadcasting the sound of children screaming for help, or the sound of ambulances in an attempt to lure people out to be targeted.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has called for Israel to start arresting Lebanese women as a matter of policy, suggesting its time to “start thinking outside the box about them,” and that “taking them to terror prison” is what “hurts them the most.”
Ben-Gvir has been advocating further escalation of the war effectively from the beginning, calling for the mass destruction of Lebanese towns and villages and for the outright annexation of broad swathes of Lebanese territory in the south.
