The Israel Defense Forces carried out an airstrike on the southern Lebanese village of Deir Aames on Thursday, hours after the White House announced a three-week extension of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire. BBC Verify authenticated two separate videos showing the large explosion hitting a group of houses in the village, which lies about 11 kilometres from the Israeli border.
IDF Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued an evacuation warning before the strike, telling residents to move more than 1,000 metres from the area and saying “Hezbollah’s activities are forcing the IDF to operate against them.” The IDF later released its own drone footage and said the strike hit “military structures” used by Hezbollah to fire rockets at the Israeli village of Shtula overnight.
In a video update issued shortly after, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a process to “achieve a historic peace between Israel and Lebanon” was now under way — but added it was “clear to us that Hezbollah is trying to sabotage this.” Israel, he said, maintains “full freedom of action” against threats and had carried out attacks on Thursday and Friday. Netanyahu praised US President Donald Trump for “applying very strong pressure on Iran, both economically and militarily.”
The strike is the clearest same-day violation of the extended truce, which Trump announced after a second high-level White House meeting between the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors. The IDF and Hezbollah have accused each other of repeated ceasefire breaches since the initial 10-day truce took effect on April 16.
The current war began on March 2 and has killed around 2,300 people in Lebanon, displacing more than one million.
