5 Israeli citizens arrested for crossing border into Lebanon

IDF says it attacked Hezbollah sites, as at least 5 reported killed in south Lebanon

Military says overnight strikes targeted underground weapons production site in Beqaa and other infrastructure in Tyre, where state media reports ‘severe damage’ to a hospital

The Israel Defense Forces on Saturday said it hit Hezbollah sites in the terror group’s strongholds in south and east Lebanon overnight following evacuation warnings.

The military issued further warnings Saturday afternoon for 10 southern Lebanese villages on both banks of the Litani River, pending more strikes on Hezbollah.

Meanwhile, Lebanese media reported at least five people were killed in separate Israeli strikes in the southern region of Tyre later Saturday. Several Syrian workers were also wounded in another strike on an agricultural area in south Lebanon on Saturday, state media said. The IDF did not immediately comment on the daytime strikes.

Separately, Lebanon’s Hamas-aligned terror group Jamaa Islamiya (Islamic Group) and its armed wing, al-Fajr Forces, said in a statement Saturday that one of its members was killed in an IDF strike in east Lebanon.

According to the military, the overnight strikes targeted an underground Hezbollah weapons production site in Lebanon’s northeaster Beqaa region, as well as other infrastructure of the Iran-backed terror group near Tyre.

To mitigate harm to civilians, evacuation warnings were issued in advance and precise munitions and surveillance were used in the strikes, the IDF said.

Earlier Saturday, after a lull of some 14 hours, sirens warning of a suspected drone attack from Lebanon sounded in northern Israel’s Kiryat Shmona Saturday morning. The IDF said shortly afterward that a suspect “aerial target” fell in Israel, close to the Lebanese border.

The IDF said later Saturday morning that there was an aerial impact in the Rosh Hanikra area. No sirens sounded. The military said it was investigating the incident.

There were no reports of injuries in either incident.

The IDF also said Saturday afternoon that it arrested five Israeli citizens who crossed the border into Lebanon and briefly traveled “several meters” into the country’s territory. The five were brought back to Israel and arrested.

“The IDF harshly condemns the crossing, and stresses that this is a serious incident which constitutes a criminal offense that endangers both IDF troops and civilians,” the military said.

Tyre hospital said severely damaged in overnight strikes

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said one overnight Israeli strike that targeted a site near Tyre’s Hiram Hospital caused “severe damage” to the medical center, which was included within the evacuation area advised by the IDF.

An AFP correspondent saw shattered glass, ceiling panels blown out and damaged medical equipment at the multi-story hospital.

The hospital’s CEO, Dr. Salman Aydibi, told AFP that around 40 patients were in the facility when the warning was issued, including seven in intensive care.

“We took the patients to a safer location” elsewhere inside the hospital, he said, adding that none were harmed but some 30 staff sustained minor injuries.

He said an evaluation of the damage was ongoing and that the hospital has remained operational, though the emergency department briefly closed.

It was the third strike near the facility in the latest round of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, Aydibi said.

Hezbollah dragged Lebanon into the wider regional war on March 2 with its first rocket attacks on Israel since a November 2024 ceasefire agreement that ended over a year of hostilities.

The terror group has said its attacks were in response to Israel continued strikes and presence in Lebanon since that agreement, and to the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei at the start of the US-Israeli bombing campaign in Iran on February 28.

A Lebanon truce was declared by US President Donald Trump on April 16, eight days into a truce in Iran, following the first round of US-brokered Israeli-Lebanese talks — the highest-level direct contacts in decades between the two enemy states.

The ongoing negotiations have failed to secure an agreement, with the Israel demanding the Lebanese government disarm Hezbollah and Beirut demanding Israel withdraw its troops from south Lebanon.