UNIFIL marks one year since cease-fire, reports over 10,000 Israeli violations | LIVE

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UNIFIL marks one year since cease-fire, reports over 10,000 Israeli violations

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has sounded the alarm one year after the Lebanon–Israel cease-fire took effect, reporting more than 10,000 Israeli air and ground violations since Nov. 27, 2024. In a new statement, the mission renewed its call for full respect of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701.

UNIFIL noted that over the past year, its peacekeepers continued their patrols, supported Lebanese Army redeployment south of the Litani River, helped clear hazards and reopen roads, and facilitated activities aimed at supporting reconstruction efforts in South Lebanon.

But the mission also pointed to persistent challenges: unauthorized weapons and equipment on the ground, Israeli positions maintained inside Lebanese territory, and thousands of recorded violations in just twelve months.

UNIFIL stressed that only full adherence to Resolution 1701 — “in letter and spirit” — can secure lasting calm. Civilians along the Blue Line, the mission warned, have “suffered enormously” from ongoing hostilities, and ensuring their safety must remain a top priority.

Khamenei rejects rumors of contact with Trump administration

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Thursday that the Trump administration was "not worthy" of contact or cooperation with the Islamic Republic.

"Such a government [the United States] is not worthy of being approached or cooperated with by a government like the Islamic Republic," Khamenei said in a televised speech, rejecting rumours that Iran had sent messages to Washington as a "pure lie".

Israeli artillery fired a shell at the Kasayer area on the outskirts of the town of Houla (Marjayoun), causing an explosion heard across the entire area, our correspondent reports.

Israeli drones spotted over university district in Nabatieh, South Lebanon, according to our correspondent.

Fate of Hamas fighters trapped in Gaza tunnels under discussion

Negotiations are underway over the fate of Hamas fighters trapped for several weeks in tunnels beneath the Gaza Strip area controlled by the Israeli army, several sources familiar with the talks told AFP.

“Discussions and contacts with mediators [Egypt, Turkey, and Qatar] and the Americans are ongoing to resolve the crisis,” a Palestinian Islamist movement leader told AFP on condition of anonymity, as did other sources due to the sensitivity of the matter.

“This issue was discussed in Egypt this week,” confirmed a Palestinian source familiar with the talks.

A source from one of the mediator countries told AFP that the U.S., Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey are working to reach a compromise allowing Hamas fighters to leave the tunnels behind the Yellow Line (marking the limit of Israeli troop withdrawal) near Rafah in the southern territory.

West Bank: France, Germany, Italy, and the UK condemn settler violence

France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom have “firmly” condemned the sharp rise in settler violence against Palestinian civilians and called on Israel to protect the population in the West Bank.

“These attacks must stop. They sow terror among civilians and undermine current efforts to establish peace and ensure Israel’s own long-term security,” the four foreign ministers said in a joint statement.

They also welcomed U.S. President Donald Trump’s clear opposition to the annexation of the West Bank and reiterated their own opposition to any form of annexation, whether partial, total, or de facto, and to colonization measures that violate international law.

The explosion heard late in the afternoon in South Lebanon was caused by a controlled detonation carried out by the Lebanese Army to destroy unexploded munitions in a field in Qalayaa (Marjayoun district), according to several local media outlets.

Our correspondent in South Lebanon confirmed that there had been no new Israeli strikes since the series carried out around 2 p.m. in the Jezzine district.

12,000 ceasze-fire violations, Israel reports 1,200 strikes

In a message published on Telegram, the Israeli army stated that it had carried out around “1,200 targeted operations,” claiming that each time it sought to “dismantle terrorist infrastructure, thwart attempts to gather intelligence on the Israeli army, and reduce Hezbollah’s military capabilities.”

It said that its troops have located “dozens of military structures, weapons depots, missile launch sites, missile launchers, as well as observation and firing positions” this year.

It claims to have neutralized more than 370 militants belonging to Hezbollah, Hamas, and various Palestinian militant organizations.

According to data analyzed by L’Orient Today Israel has violated the agreement more than 12,000 times, killing 343 people — including 136 civilians — between 27 Nov. 2024 and 14 November 2025.

➡️ See our infographics here

South Lebanon: Israeli army drops a stun grenade on Adaisseh

An Israeli drone dropped a stun grenade on the locality of Adaisseh, in the Marjayoun district, our correspondent in the South reports.

South of this town, the Israeli army has been occupying a position for several months, inside Lebanese territory, in an area disputed between Lebanon and Israel.

Israeli army announces the strikes against Mahmoudieh

The Israeli army released a statement on X announcing its strikes against the area known as Mahmoudieh, in Jezzine district, north of the Litani River, in southern Lebanon. As is customary, the Israeli army claimed it was targeting Hezbollah infrastructure, despite having agreed to a cease-fire with the party exactly one year ago today.

"A short while ago, the Israeli army struck and dismantled Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure in several areas in southern Lebanon," the army said in a statement.

No casualties were reported as a result of the bombardment.

More than 100, including journalists, taken by Israeli forces during Tubas governate raids in occupied West Bank

Israeli forces have arrested over 100 Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank's northeastern Tubas governorate since the military and Shin Bet launched a large-scale raid against the area on Tuesday night, WAFA news agency reports, citing Kamal Bani ‘Awda, the regional director of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club.

Twenty-seven of those arrested were released overnight, some of whom remained handcuffed until they reached home, Bani ‘Awda told WAFA.

Among those taken by Israeli forces are a journalist and a photographer from the city of Tubas, according to Al Jazeera Arabic, cited by Middle East Eye.

Israeli forces laid siege to the town of Tammun in the Tubas Governorate. The town's mayor said that the forces displaced many families, turning their homes into military barracks and sealing the town.

The Israeli army also cut off roads connecting the town with the rest of the West Bank, and severed electricity lines and drinking water pipes.

Images of the Israeli bombardment of Mahmoudieh hills in Jezzine district

(Photo sent to L'Orient Today's correspondent in the South by residents of the area)

Israeli jets bomb the Mahmoudieh area, in the Jezzine district

The Israeli army bombed the hills surrounding the Jezzine district village of Mahmoudieh, in Jezzine district, around 2 p.m., according to information from our correspondent in the South.

This region is located north of the Litani River, which is used to demarcate the cease-fire stipulation that requires Hezbollah's withdrawal from the South. This site is regularly targeted by the Israeli air force, which claims its attacks are against Hezbollah infrastructure there.

At least two strikes have been carried out on the area in the last few minutes, targeting the hill known as "Nabaa al-Taseh" and the heights of Rihane.

Amnesty International says Israel's genocide of Palestinians continues in Gaza through infliction of living conditions meant to 'bring about their destruction'

Palestinian children move mattresses to protect them from the rain at a makeshift camp housing displaced Palestinians in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip on Nov. 25, 2025. (Credit: Bashar Taleb/AFP)

More than a month after a cease-fire was announced in Gaza and all living Israeli hostages were released, Israeli authorities are still committing genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip, Amnesty International has declared.

The ongoing genocide is being enacted through the deliberate infliction of conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians, without signalling any change in their intent, the international human rights organization said in a statement released on its website.

Amnesty provided a legal analysis of the ongoing genocide, along with testimonies from local residents, medical staff and humanitarian workers highlighting the dire ongoing conditions for Palestinians in Gaza.

“The cease-fire risks creating a dangerous illusion that life in Gaza is returning to normal," said Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International. "But while Israeli authorities and forces have reduced the scale of their attacks and allowed limited amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza, the world must not be fooled. Israel’s genocide is not over.”

More than 12,000 Israeli violations in Lebanon in one year of 'cease-fire'

Since the cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah came into effect on this day last year, the Israeli army has violated the agreement more than 12,000 times, almost daily, between incursions and airstrikes, artillery fire, demolition of buildings, shootings at civilians, abductions, booby-trapped structures and the installation of military outposts on Lebanese territory.

On Nov. 19, a particularly deadly strike killed 13 youths — all civilians, according to the U.N. — in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh on the outskirts of Saida.

L’Orient Today drew on data collected by the NGO Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED), an independent and impartial monitor that collects and shares “near real-time” data on political violence and protests all over the world, including Lebanon.

Understand the numbers with our collection of infographics breaking down the last year of Israeli violations of the Lebanon cease-fire. 👈

Barrack reiterates Israel's insistence that it will attack 'anytime, anywhere' in Lebanon

Tom Barrack, the U. S. ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Lebanon and Syria until about a month ago, told the New York Times that if Israel senses any threat, “They’re going to respond anytime, anywhere,” according to a report published in the newspaper on the first anniversary of the ostensible cease-fire in Lebanon.

“When the Israelis find these guys, they just take them out, so you have two or three a week that are whacked,” he said of Israel's ongoing bombardment of the country in violation of the truce it agreed to last November. Israel has killed more than 350 people in Lebanon since then. According to the U.N., 127 of them were civilians and at least 15 were children.

Read more about his comments here. 👈

(Credit: Planet Labs PBC/AFP)

This handout satellite picture obtained from Planet Labs PBC on Nov. 25, 2025 and dated September 14, 2025, shows an Israeli position (R) next to a United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) base, on the Lebanese side of the U.N.-demarcated Blue Line, the de facto border, near the village of Labbouneh. '

One year after a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah, the Israeli army still maintains at least five illegal military outposts in southern Lebanon, with fortifications and widened access routes, according to satellite images analyzed by AFP. From these outposts, Israeli soldiers routinely fire on Lebanese border villages and carry out incursions, often demolishing buildings and homes.

‘The time for talks (between Lebanon and Israel) is now,’ says UN coordinator

On the first anniversary of the cease-fire in Lebanon, the U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, reaffirmed that the time for dialogue between Lebanon and Israel "is now".

"The time for talks is now. No challenge is insurmountable. A promising future for all is within reach," the U.N. coordinator said on her office's official Telegram account.

"A year ago, a cessation of hostilities agreement came into force, quickly reducing the escalation caused by two months of devastating fighting and human suffering on both sides of the Blue Line," she added. The Special Coordinator also noted that "while the strengthening of the Lebanese army's presence in the south of the country, as well as major decisions by the government, have been the cornerstones of a return to normality, uncertainty remains today." "In reality, for many Lebanese, the conflict continues, albeit with less intensity. (...) As long as the current status quo persists, the spectre of future hostilities will continue to loom large."

Israel set to bring 5,800 Jews from India to occupy West Bank and settle in northern Israel

The Israeli government approved plans on Sunday to bring all the remaining 5,800 Jews from India's north-eastern region, commonly referred to as Bnei Menashe, over the next five years and settle them in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and northern Israel, according to a report from The Hindu.

It will be the first time that Israel's Jewish Agency, which promotes Zionism globally, will be leading the entire pre-immigration process, organizing the flights for eligible candidates and managing their absorption in Israel.

The plan is estimated to require a special budget of 90 million shekels ($27 million) to cover the costs of the flights, "conversion classes," housing, Hebrew lessons, and other programs.

"This historic decision will bring approximately 5,800 members of the community to Israel by 2030, including 1,200 already approved in 2026," the Jewish Agency said in a statement.

When Israel's program targeting this community first began, most Bnei Menashe Jews were settled in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. More recently, they have been sent to towns in northern Israel, with Nof Hagalil — a mixed Jewish-Arab city very close to Nazareth — as the primary destination.

Israeli airstrikes in southern and central Gaza this morning

Israeli forces carried out a series of airstrikes in southern and central Gaza this morning, Al Jazeera reports, including in areas beyond the so-called 'Yellow Line,' that marks the supposed withdrawal of the Israeli army under the cease-fire deal that came into effect in early October.

Israel has killed more than 350 people since this ostensible truce began, including dozens of children.

Some of the strikes this morning targeted buildings in central Gaza’s Bureij refugee camp and eastern Khan Younis, according to Al Jazeera’s correspondents on the ground.

Trump administration expects international armed force to arrive in Gaza mid-January

The international troops making up Trump's "International Stabilization Force" in Gaza could arrived in Gaza by mid-January and will initially be deployed in Rafah, Israeli Channel 14 reports, citing an American official at the Coordination Center in southern Israel.

According to the report, Israeli soldiers are working to demine the area where the force will be deployed and remove unexploded ordnance. The same U.S. official also told Channel 14 that Israel has set the end of April as the target date for Hamas' disarmament.

Israeli defense minister tells Knesset committee that groups in Syria are planning Golan operation

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz claimed that armed groups within Syria are considering launching an operation on the Israeli-occupied and annexed Golan Heights, Times of Israel reports, citing the Israeli Kan outlet.

These comments were reportedly made yesterday during a Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting and follow a long-touted claim posited by Israeli officials regarding supposed threats from groups backed by Iran.

According to the report, Katz said that Israel is “not on track” for a security deal or normalization with Damascus, and is preparing for scenarios in which Syrian forces, or various militias within the country attack Israeli soldiers along the Golan perimeter.

Katz told the committee that Yemen's Houthis are among the forces operating in Syria and are weighing a ground invasion of the Golan Heights, the report adds.

The Israeli army took advantage of the fall of Assad in Syria to invade beyond the U.N.-patrolled buffer zone between Syria and the Golan Heights, which Israel seized during the 1967 war and annexed in 1981.

American senators push Marco Rubio to look into Israeli warcrimes cited in State Department report

Several American Democratic senators are urging U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to quickly investigate what a classified government watchdog report has described as “hundreds” of potential human rights violations allegedly committed by the Israeli military in Gaza, Washington Post reports.

A letter to the State Department on Tuesday accompanying the petition warns that delays in scrutinizing incidents of killing, torture and abuse in Gaza undermine laws barring U.S. security assistance for foreign military units credibly accused of such wrongdoing.

Nine other senators in the Democratic caucus also signed on to the petition.

“Without effective enforcement mechanisms, these laws and policies become meaningless,” the senators wrote.

The classified report they cite was produced by the State Department’s Office of Inspector General, which found that the backlog of incidents related to Israeli military units could take the State Department years to fully examine.

Hezbollah will not retaliate against Israel despite Iranian calls for 'revenge,' The National reports

Hezbollah officials have told The National that the group remains "committed to the cease-fire" with Israel and will not respond to recent attacks, after Iranian calls for revenge over the killing of a senior commander, Haytham Ali Tabataba'i, in an airstrike on Beirut's southern suburbs on Sunday.

A political figure and a member of parliament who did not want to be identified told the outlet that the death of the commander is a “natural outcome” of the confrontation with Israel and does not require immediate action.

The National also spoke with a senior Iranian diplomat in the Middle East, responsible for relations with Hezbollah, who reiterated that the group “makes its own decisions.” He was speaking after the calls from other Iranian officials for retaliation.

Read: "Lay down their arms to escape the tunnels alive: Washington tests Hamas"

The estimated 200-or-so Hamas fighters trapped in tunnels under Rafah gave U.S. mediators an idea. The made-in-America solution to advance to phase two of the Gaza cease-fire was to condition the return, via safe passage, of Hamas members behind the so-called "Yellow Line" in exchange for their peaceful disarmament.

“We hope this serves as a test and could be expanded later to other areas of Gaza,” an American source told Axios. Two weeks ago, the Trump administration reportedly began talks to open a secure crossing for 24 hours, during which Hamas militants would be allowed to reach areas of Gaza controlled by their group and be given amnesty, provided they do not resume military activity.

The tunnels would then be destroyed by the Israeli army, while the evacuated fighters would be required to hand over their weapons to a third party — Egypt, Qatar, or Turkey.

Read the full article here. 👈

Hamas calls for fighters to be allowed out of Gaza tunnels

A man stands on an elevated floor in a heavily-damaged building without walls in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Jan. 21, 2025, as residents return following a cease-fire deal in the war. (Credit: Eyad Baba/AFP)

Last night, Hamas called on mediating countries to pressure Israel to allow safe passage for dozens of its fighters holed up in tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip. AFP reports.

The request came after the Israeli military said it killed over 20 Hamas members over the past week "who attempted to flee from the underground terror infrastructure in the area," and apprehended eight more.

It was the first time the group had publicly acknowledged that its members were trapped in the tunnels.

Israeli media has reported that for weeks, between 100 and 200 Hamas militants have remained trapped in a network of tunnels under the city of Rafah, in an area of the Gaza Strip under Israeli military control.

Read the full report here. 👈

Israel allows Lebanese Red Cross and Lebanese Army to search for bodies near Kfar Kila

A team from the Lebanese Red Cross, accompanied by the Lebanese Army has been granted by the Israeli army, which illegally occupies areas near Kfar Kila, permission to access an area near the Marjayoun district village, in order to locate any possible remains.

Israeli soldiers infiltrate Lebanon near Mais al-Jabal, raid house, target Khiam with machine guns

Israeli troops conducted an incursion into Lebanon last night, shortly after 9 p.m., infiltrated with an army vehicle the outskirts of Marjayoun district's Mais al-Jabal. The soldiers had come from the Israeli military post of al-Assi, located opposite Mais al-Jabal.

According to our correspondent in the South, Muntasser Abdallah, Israeli soldiers moved about 100 meters into Lebanon, entered a house, searched it, then withdrew.

Then, after midnight, Israeli soldiers stationed at the illegal outpost on Lebanon territory on the the hills south of Khiam, also in Marjayoun district, opened fire with machine guns on the village's outskirts.

Flare bombs were also launched towards Markaba, in the same district, from Israel, and, according to residents, intense Israeli fire from automatic weapons targeted the outskirts of Kfar Shuba, in Hasbaya district.

The machine gun fire appeared to be coming from from the Rweissat al-Alam outpost, another one of the six sites within Lebanon illegally occupied by the Israeli army since the truce began.

Good morning and welcome to today's live coverage of events in the region, on the one-year mark of the supposed cease-fire in Lebanon, which came into effect on Nov. 27, 2024 and has been routinely violated by Israel ever since.

We'll also be covering Israel's violations of the truce in Gaza and its ongoing raid of Palestinian villages in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where residents have been ordered to stay in their homes and helicopters fire on them from above.

☕ You can read our Morning Brief here to catch up on everything you need to know going into today. 👈