{"id":468238,"date":"2026-05-30T20:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T20:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/468238\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T20:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T20:47:08","slug":"israeli-soldiers-reach-nabatieh-one-of-southern-lebanons-biggest-cities-israel-attacks-lebanon-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/468238\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli soldiers reach Nabatieh, one of southern Lebanon\u2019s biggest cities | Israel attacks Lebanon News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israel\u2019s military has advanced beyond the Litani River in southern Lebanon for the first time since 2006 and appear poised to encircle the major city of Nabatieh<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Senior Lebanese military sources on Saturday told the Turkish state news agency Anadolu that Israeli forces had crossed<\/a> the Litani River, which Israel has declared the perimeter of its unofficial buffer zone.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

Israeli forces are now on the outskirts of Nabatieh, a city that is key to southern Lebanon\u2019s economy and a cultural hub for the region. If the Shia-majority city were to fall, it would mark a significant development in Israel\u2019s war on Lebanon and subsequent official ceasefire.<\/p>\n

Nabatieh is viewed by many Lebanese as a symbol of resistance due to its historic role on the front line of Israeli assaults.<\/p>\n

Reporting from the southern city of Tyre, Al Jazeera\u2019s Obaida Hitto said Israel was expanding its air campaign in southern Lebanon and encircling Nabatieh in preparation for a potential assault on the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks like Israel is trying to make this final push to encircle Nabatieh, breaking through the second and third lines of defence of Hezbollah and isolating the western Bekaa Valley from the south of the country,\u201d Hitto said.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Lebanon\u2019s military said that \u201ctwo soldiers were seriously wounded as a result of being targeted inside a vehicle by a hostile Israeli drone\u201d near Nabatieh.<\/p>\n

Late on Saturday, Lebanon\u2019s National News Agency (NNA) reported that at least one paramedic was killed and four others injured in an Israeli drone attack on the southern Lebanese village of Jebchit. The attack also damaged the Lebanese Relief Hospital but all medical, nursing and ambulance staff are safe, NNA added.<\/p>\n

Separately, Israeli air strikes and artillery shelling hit near Beaufort castle, which is located about 15km (nine miles) from the Israeli border and overlooks large parts of southern Lebanon, NNA said. The 12th century castle was held by Israeli forces for 18 years until they withdrew from Lebanon in May 2000.<\/p>\n

In retaliation on Saturday, Hezbollah said it fired rockets at the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona.<\/p>\n

The group also ambushed Israeli soldiers near Ghandouriyeh in southern Lebanon, saying it forced them to withdraw.<\/p>\n

In separate statements later in the day, Hezbollah said it destroyed an Israeli military vehicle near the Lebanese village of Yohmor al-Shaqif after it was targeted by Ababil attack drones and launched a drone attack on the Yaara barracks in northern Israel.<\/p>\n

Further attacks included a drone strike on an Israeli army command headquarters in the southern Lebanese village of Naqoura and a missile barrage targeting Israeli military infrastructure in the city of Nahariyya in northern Israel.<\/p>\n

\u2018Dangerous and unprecedented\u2019 escalation<\/p>\n

Israel has issued evacuation orders for at least 10 villages in southern Lebanon, as it expands its invasion, despite being engaged in ongoing peace talks with Lebanese officials.<\/p>\n

The Israeli army\u2019s Arabic spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, instructed residents in several Lebanese villages to evacuate immediately, warning they could be killed if they remained.<\/p>\n

Al Jazeera\u2019s Hitto said people fleeing their homes have few options, with more than 20 percent of the population \u2013 about 1.2 million people \u2013 displaced by fighting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose options are turning into basically people living with relatives if they have that option, or people living in makeshift camps in public parks and public spaces. I\u2019ve seen many families living in their vehicles for long periods of time,\u201d Hitto said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of these families have been continuously displaced since 2023,\u201d Hitto added.<\/p>\n

The evacuation order came the day after officials from Israel and Lebanon met in Washington to discuss<\/a> a permanent end to the war, which began in early March when Iran-backed Hezbollah began attacking Israel following the assassination of Iran\u2019s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam denounced what he described as Israel\u2019s \u201cdangerous and unprecedented\u201d escalation in the south, urging an immediate ceasefire and insisting that a \u201cscorched-earth policy\u201d would not ensure Israel\u2019s security.<\/p>\n

In a televised address, Salam also defended his government\u2019s direct negotiations with Israel, saying that the talks were the \u201cleast costly path\u201d for Lebanon.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the day, Salam held talks with Lebanon\u2019s President Joseph Aoun to discuss the security situation and ongoing negotiations with Israel. According to NNA, they agreed to intensify efforts to end the war, which has triggered a humanitarian crisis.<\/p>\n

Aoun also spoke by phone with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and stressed the importance of Israel respecting the current ceasefire.<\/p>\n

Talks between Lebanese and Israeli officials to end the war are being facilitated by the US, and a new round is expected in Washington next week.<\/p>\n

But Israel\u2019s ongoing attacks and forced displacement orders are a further test to the nominal \u201cceasefire\u201d in place since mid-April and repeatedly violated by Israeli forces. It justifies its actions by saying it is targeting Hezbollah as part of efforts to disarm the group.<\/p>\n

Lebanese officials are working to disarm Hezbollah, but the task has proved extremely difficult.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, on Friday, at least 14 people were killed in Israeli air raids in southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel\u2019s military has advanced beyond the Litani River in southern Lebanon for the first time since 2006 and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1153,86,85,87,46,48084,88,47,2899,43,13838,1032,1156],"class_list":["post-468238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-conflict","tag-hezbollah","tag-il","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-israel-attacks-lebanon","tag-lebanon","tag-middle-east","tag-military","tag-news","tag-refugees","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}