After a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah lasted for almost a year, war is now creeping back in Lebanon.
As the Israeli Defence Forces tested the Donald Trump-brokered truce in Gaza, it also intensified its attacks in the south and north of the country.
Pre-dawn airstrikes – the most intense since November 2024 – targeted the village of Msayleh three weeks ago, killing one person and wounding six others.
Multiple others grotesque attacks – some targeted assassinations against alleged Hezbollah members – have followed since, including ground raid by Israeli forces into the border town of Blida, during which they shot dead a municipality worker.
This appears to have forced Lebanese president, Joseph Aoun, to finally lose his patience with the Israeli-forced status quo.
Responding to Thursday’s overnight attack, he ordered the Lebanese army to ‘confront any Israeli incursion’ into the south in ‘defence of the Lebanese lands and the safety of citizens.’
It was not clear what form the confrontation would take, but his statement came just hours after the killing in Blida.
Aoun identified the municipal employee as Ibrahim Salameh and said that he had been killed ‘while he was performing his professional duties.’
The state-run National News Agency reported that Israeli forces stormed the village around 1.30 am and entered the municipality building, where Salameh was sleeping.
The victim ‘usually slept in the municipality,’ said Tahsin Kaour, a local official.
He added: ‘He heard a noise outside suddenly and went to the window to see what was going on, and they shot him.’
Hisham Abdel Latif Hassan, Salameh’s nephew, told AFP: ‘We heard Israeli soldiers shout, then there were gunshots.’
After the troops withdrew, Salameh was found dead near his mattress.
Residents in Blida expressed anger toward the Lebanese army and the United Nations peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL, who they said were failing to protect civilians.
Residents confronted UNIFIL peacekeepers who arrived in the village in the morning and asked them to leave.
Kaour added: ‘We want the government to protect us, to protect the people, for the Lebanese army to protect us.’
Since the US-brokered ceasefire halted the latest Israel-Hezbollah war last November, Israel has continued to launch near-daily strikes on Lebanon as it claims that it is targeting Hezbollah militants, facilities and weapons.
Israeli forces have also continued to occupy several strategic points on the Lebanese side of the border.
In response to the attack in Blida, Hezbollah said the incident ‘confirms the brutality of this enemy, thirsty for killing and bloodshed without any justification.’
The group linked the operation to Wednesday’s visit of US envoy Morgan Ortagus, who chaired a meeting of the ‘Mechanism’ committee – a body tasked with monitoring the cessation of hostilities agreement reached last November.
Ortagus said his government welcomed the ‘decision to bring all weapons under state control by the end of the year’.
A statement added: ‘We continue to monitor developments in Lebanon and welcome the government’s decision to bring all weapons under state control by the end of the year.’
The Lebanese military ‘must now fully implement its plan,’ she added.
In August, the Lebanese government endorsed a US-backed road map to disarm Hezbollah by the end of the year.
But its military forces have been hampered by limited resources, and it is unclear whether that deadline will be met and if this will result in Israel ramping up bombardments even further.
Looking back at the war last year, an Israeli escalation could take several forms.
Lebanon could see more of the same kind of strikes against Hezbollah’s arsenal and personal in the south and the Beqaa governorate, which borders Syria.
Bombings could also be expanded to residential areas where Israel claims that Hezbollah is hiding strategic weapons, alongside an on-the-ground incursion.
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