A woman walks past a building destroyed by Israel in the village of Zawtar Gharbieh, in southern Lebanon, on July 26, 2026. (Credit: Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP)
SOUTH LEBANON — Israel continued to target the Ali Taher heights in the district of Nabatieh on Monday, with artillery shelling and drone activity reported in and around the area. Due to the repeated targeting of Ali Taher hills and the surrounding area, fires have broken out, according to L’Orient Today’s correspondent in southern Lebanon.
Israel had resumed its heavy bombing of the Ali Taher heights over the weekend, raising doubts over renewed tensions over the area. The Israelis have repeatedly claimed the strategic hill to be an underground Hezbollah “command base” as a pretext for bombing it. The hill is currently partially encircled by the Israeli army, which has accused Hezbollah of attempting to spy on it using a drone.
According to Israeli army radio, soldiers fired at a drone belonging to Hezbollah “that was attempting to gather intelligence on Israeli forces in Lebanon” mobilized in the Ali Taher area. The drone was unarmed, but equipped with a camera. The device was shot down, according to the military outlet, which accuses Hezbollah of “continuing to send drones” towards Israeli occupying forces. The radio also recalled that “dozens of Hezbollah members are encircled underground in the Ali Taher area, while the Israeli army controls the surface terrain.”
Moreover, according to Lebanese Army sources quoted by Erem News, a media outlet based in Abu Dhabi, Hezbollah is on alert in southern Lebanon “under the supervision of a commander from the al-Quds Force,” the branch responsible for overseas operations of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, and is moving equipment and fighters for fear that the U.S. war against Iran will extend to the region and Lebanon as a whole. According to these sources, the Ali Taher hill has become an “operational center from which Hezbollah’s redeployment is coordinated.”
Contacted by L'Orient Today, a Hezbollah source dismissed the report as "rumors spread to sow panic ahead of a possible escalation."
Since the agreement signed between the United States and Iran in mid-June which calls for a “cessation of hostilities” in the region and especially in Lebanon, Hezbollah has not claimed any attacks against Israeli forces and says it is respecting this truce.
Shooting and demolitions in southern Lebanon
Meanwhile today, an Israeli drone strike targeted an area between the adjacent villages of Nabatieh Fawqa and Mayfadoun.
The Israeli army also reportedly set fire to several homes in Beit Yahoun (Bint Jbeil). In the Marjayoun area, Israeli artillery shelling targeted the outskirts of Tallousa and Markaba, sparking fires among trees and agricultural fields.
In the Sour district, an Israeli drone fired two sound grenades on Mansouri, bringing the total number of sound bombs targeting the town since the morning to four. The drone also reportedly fired stun grenades on the town.
The Israeli army also carried out demolitions in Mansouri and Majdal Zoun (Sour), on jointly owned plots of land, as well as inside Majdal Zoun, our correspondent reported. It also conducted six consecutive demolitions in the village of Taybeh (Marjayoun).
In the Hasbaya area, Israeli artillery shelling targeted the al-Qate’ area on the outskirts of Shebaa.
These incidents occurred across southern Lebanon, including in areas inside the Israeli-occupied “buffer zone” which covers more than 620 km².
The night from Sunday to Monday was marked by a number of Israeli demolitions of houses and civilian infrastructure using explosives in Haddatha, Tiri, Rshaf (Bint Jbeil), and Qantara (Marjayoun).
Israel has destroyed dozens of homes and infrastructure in southern Lebanon since Sunday morning, while also bombing a village and targeting three others with artillery fire, according to our correspondent.
The situation prompted the Lebanese Army to condemn “the continued firing and destruction by Israeli troops in southern Lebanon,” which prevents it from carrying out its deployment provided for by the “framework agreement” signed at the end of June between Lebanon and Israel in Washington.
Under the framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel, the first “pilot zones” were reinvested this week by the Lebanese army in Zawtar Gharbieh (Nabatieh) as well as in Srifa and Froun (Bint Jbeil) in the central sector.
Man trying to return to his village shot dead by Israeli army
The body of Shadi Hassian Darwish was recovered Monday morning by the Lebanese Red Cross and the Lebanese Army on the road linking Mansouri and Bayada in the Tyre district. Darwish, who had been reported missing, had left the shelter where he was staying in Burj al-Shemali on Sunday evening, hoping to return to the area.
He took a taxi to Hannieh before continuing on foot along the coastal road, bypassing a Lebanese Army checkpoint. Upon reaching the Bayada area, he was spotted by the Israeli army, which opened fire and killed him.
A native of the border village of Dhayra, Darwish had been taking refuge at the German School in Burj al-Shemali and was determined to return to his hometown, according to our correspondent in south Lebanon, Mountasser Abdallah.
After obtaining authorization from the cease-fire monitoring mechanism, Lebanese Red Cross ambulance crews, in coordination with the Lebanese Army and UNIFIL, recovered the body. It was transferred to the morgue of Jabal Amel Hospital in Sour before being handed over to his family for burial in the Sour area.
Reporting contributed by our correspondent in the South, Muntasser Abdallah.
