A sharp rise in lethal incidents across southern Lebanon is testing the ceasefire that took hold on 20 June under a US-Iran memorandum of understanding. Lebanese state media and Hezbollah’s military media office report that Israeli drone strikes killed at least seven people between Tuesday and Thursday, including two civilians who were inspecting their homes in the Kfar Rumman area and three others in a vehicle on the Zawtar-Mayfadoun road. The Israeli military, for its part, said it had killed six Hezbollah members on Tuesday and several more on Thursday, describing all those targeted as armed operatives who had crossed into a security zone and posed a direct threat to Israeli soldiers.

Israeli defence minister Israel Katz stated on Wednesday that Israeli forces would not withdraw from southern Lebanon, even if the United States were to demand a pull-out. The military has established what it calls a security zone along the border, and its statements frame the strikes as defensive measures to remove immediate dangers. Israeli officials also confirmed the death of a sergeant in an operational vehicle accident in the south, bringing the military’s acknowledged losses in Lebanon to 37 soldiers and one civilian contractor since the war began.

Hezbollah has issued two formal warnings in 48 hours, calling the attacks a “flagrant breach” of the ceasefire and insisting that those killed were civilians, not fighters. A Hezbollah parliamentarian, Hassan Fadlallah, declared that no final agreement would be reached without a complete Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory and that the resistance was fully prepared to respond. He framed the Iran-US memorandum as a strategic gain for Tehran, arguing that Iranian nuclear diplomacy and the leverage of the Strait of Hormuz now serve Lebanese interests. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, meanwhile, stressed that direct negotiations with Israel in Washington are separate from the Swiss-brokered Iran-US deal, and a fifth round of those talks was under way.

The current ceasefire followed an intense phase of fighting in which Hezbollah ambushes killed an Israeli battalion commander and three soldiers in Kfar Tibnit, and Israeli ground forces advanced up to 10 kilometres into Lebanese territory. Lebanese authorities put the overall death toll since the start of the war at around 4,200, with roughly one million displaced. Mediators Pakistan and Qatar have announced that Washington and Tehran agreed to set up a de-confliction cell to limit flare-ups in Lebanon, though its operational details remain unclear. With Israeli drones still flying over Beirut and its southern suburbs, and Hezbollah stating it is monitoring violations in real time, the truce remains precarious as both sides pursue parallel diplomatic and military tracks.