Smoke rises from a village in southern Lebanon, as it seen from the Israeli side of the border, on February 16, 2025. Photo by Ayal Margolin/Flash90
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Monday revealed that Hezbollah fired five drones toward Israel in recent weeks, with the IDF only alerting the public in one instance.
According to Army Radio, four of the drones, all of them reportedly surveillance drones, penetrated Israeli air space.
Despite this, the military had only acknowledged one of these incidents to the Israeli public, despite frequent announcements of Hezbollah’s other violations of the ceasefire terms.
The report came one day after the IDF eliminated Abbas Ahmad Hamoud, a high-ranking Hezbollah commander responsible for the drone launches.
“As I warned, if there are drones, there will be no Hezbollah,” Israeli Defense Minister Katz said following the strike.
“We will not allow drone launches toward Israel. The launch of the drones crosses a red line and is a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon,” he added.
Last Thursday, the IDF struck Hezbollah targets in the Bekaa Valley after the terror group had launched one of the drones.
Meanwhile, tensions are high along the Lebanese border, as the deadline for the IDF’s withdrawal from Lebanon is only one day away.
After a crowd of Lebanese people broke into the village of Houla yesterday, the military stated that IDF troops “fired to drive the suspects away,” but added that it wasn’t aware of Lebanese claims that a woman among the crowd was killed.
“After some of the suspects crossed the Lebanese army checkpoint in the area and moved towards IDF forces, the forces fired to drive the suspects away. After several suspects did not move away, the forces began a suspect detention procedure. In addition, several suspects were arrested and are being interrogated by the forces,” the army said.
Lebanese media said two of the detained individuals were released on Monday, while three are still in the IDF’s custody.
There were also reports that the IDF continued to detonate buildings in several areas, including Kfar Kila, Houla, Labouna and Meiss al-Jabal.
According to Army Radio, these are “final completions of the destruction of buildings that were used by Hezbollah and could endanger our forces and Israeli territory in the future.”
With the deadline approaching, it remains unclear whether the IDF will complete its withdrawal from southern Lebanon. According to Lebanese claims, the IDF intends to continue its presence in five strategic points along the border with the support of the United States.
So far, there hasn’t been any official confirmation of this plan from Israeli or U.S. representatives and the five locations have not yet been disclosed.
