Israel–Hezbollah conflict (Lebanon)

Hezbollah emerged during Israel's 1982–2000 occupation of southern Lebanon and fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006 that ended with UN Security Council resolution 1701. On 8 October 2023, the day after Hamas's attack, Hezbollah began rocket and drone fire on northern Israel in a declared 'support front' for Gaza. Nearly a year of cross-border exchanges displaced about 60,000 Israelis and some 100,000 Lebanese before Israel escalated in September 2024: exploding pagers and radios (17–18 September), a massive air campaign from 23 September, the killing of Hassan Nasrallah on 27 September and a ground invasion on 1 October. The 2023–2024 conflict killed at least 4,047 people in Lebanon (Lebanese Health Ministry) including, by Israeli and Hezbollah accounts, 2,700–5,000 Hezbollah fighters, and 87 Israeli security personnel and 46 civilians; up to 1.4 million people were displaced in Lebanon and 96,000 in Israel.

The 27 November 2024 ceasefire required Hezbollah to withdraw north of the Litani River, the Lebanese army to deploy in the south and Israel to withdraw within 60 days. Israel kept five hilltop positions after the deadline and continued strikes it said targeted Hezbollah rearmament, killing 331 people by November 2025 (a toll that later passed 500). Lebanon's new government under President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam adopted a plan in August 2025 for a state monopoly on arms, and the army announced completion of a first disarmament phase south of the Litani. On 23 November 2025 Israel killed Hezbollah's chief of staff Haytham Ali Tabatabai in Beirut.

The 2026 war began on 2 March, two days after the US-Israeli attack on Iran, when Hezbollah fired on northern Israel. Israel struck Beirut, the Bekaa and the south, ordered evacuations across roughly a fifth of the country and began ground operations on 16 March; a strike on a health centre in Burj Qalaouiyah killed 12 medical staff and 8 April, the day after the US–Iran ceasefire, became the deadliest day with at least 357 killed. A ten-day ceasefire took effect on 16 April and was extended; Israel and Lebanon reached a US-facilitated agreement on 3 June which Hezbollah rejected; the 15–17 June US–Iran Islamabad Memorandum included Lebanon; Trump announced a renewed Israel–Hezbollah truce on 19 June; and on 26 June Secretary of State Rubio announced a 'framework for lasting peace and security' that requires Hezbollah's full disarmament in return for Israeli withdrawal. More than 1.2 million people were displaced at the peak; about 500,000 remained displaced in early July and more than 40,000 homes in the south were destroyed.

Implementation is partial. The US said Israel agreed on 15 July to withdraw from pilot zones and on 20–21 July handed sections of its buffer zone to the Lebanese army, which deployed in Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh; Israeli troops re-entered the village on 8 August. Lebanon and Israel agreed on 7 August a shortlist of states to verify Hezbollah's disarmament, but Hezbollah's leadership says it will not disarm while Israel occupies Lebanese territory and has continued drone attacks on Israeli positions on the Ali Taher ridge, where Israel detonated more than 1,000 tons of explosives in a tunnel complex on 10 September. Israeli strikes killed at least 11 people on 7 September and 12 members of one family in Kfar Reman on 6 September; the Lebanese Health Ministry toll reached 4,386 dead on 17 September 2026. Lebanon planned to press for an end to strikes at US-hosted trilateral talks in Tampa, Florida.