IDF strikes Beirut for first time in 3 weeks, as offensive in Lebanon intensifies
Target said to be head of an Iranian militia’s missile force; unclear if he was killed; other strikes hit over 135 targets; Lebanese authorities say 14 killed, including children
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The Israel Defense Forces said it carried out a strike in a suburb of Beirut on Thursday, the first time in three weeks that Israel has bombed the area of the Lebanese capital, amid an escalating conflict with the Hezbollah terror group.
The military did not immediately give any further details.
An Israeli security source said the target was Ali al-Husni, the head of the missile force in the Imam Hossein Division, an Iranian militia that operates alongside Hezbollah.
It was not immediately clear whether he had been killed in the strike. The IDF said it would provide further details later.
According to Lebanese media, the strike took place in Shuwayfat, just south of the Lebanese capital.
Images and videos from the suburb of Shuwayfat showed white smoke billowing from a residential neighborhood. The area is close to Beirut’s international airport.
It marked the first Israeli strike on Beirut since May 6. A strike that day killed the commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, Ahmed Ghaleb Balout.
Amid a fragile ceasefire in Iran, the IDF has mostly avoided striking the Lebanese capital at the request of the Trump administration. The US earlier this week approved Israeli plans to expand operations against Hezbollah, but warned Jerusalem against striking Beirut for fear that doing so could harm ongoing negotiations with Iran, Hebrew media widely reported, citing Israeli officials.
غارة إسرائيلية تستهدف منطقة الشويفات pic.twitter.com/hkqQvOrr8L
— هنا لبنان (@thisislebnews) May 28, 2026
The strike came amid an escalation in southern Lebanon, where Israeli troops have crossed the Litani River over the past few days and issued a warning for residents to leave much of the area, in response to relentless deadly Hezbollah drone attacks on troops and northern Israel. A soldier was killed by a drone on Wednesday on the Israeli side of the border.
Over 135 Hezbollah targets were struck over the past day, the military said, with targets in southern Lebanon and the eastern Beqaa Valley, including rocket launch sites and a Hezbollah training camp. In Tyre, 15 Hezbollah infrastructure sites used to advance attacks were struck, according to the military.
The Israeli Air Force also struck and killed several Hezbollah operatives who were seen leaving a rocket-launching site used in an attack on troops, the IDF noted.
צפו בתיעוד: חיל-האוויר חיסל חוליית מחבלים בעת שיצאה מאתר שיגור של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה בצור
חיל-האוויר תקף לאורך היממה האחרונה, יותר מ-135 מטרות של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה בצור, בבקעא ובדרום לבנון.
בבקעא ובדרום לבנון, הותקפו כ-10 אתרי שיגור ששימשו את מחבלי הארגון לשיגור רקטות… pic.twitter.com/5Ns8NsBh0u
— Israeli Air Force (@IAFsite) May 28, 2026
The Israeli strikes killed at least 14 people across the south of the country, local officials said, without distinguishing between fighters and noncombatants. Among those killed in the flurry of strikes were five women and children and a Lebanese soldier. Dozens of others were wounded, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry and the state-run National News Agency. Israel is not fighting against the Lebanese army, but rather just the Iran-backed Hezbollah and allied militias.
The intensification comes after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced an expansion in the Israeli military’s attacks in Lebanon, apparently sparked by Hezbollah’s use of fiber-optic exploding drones that have struck Israeli troops in Lebanon and reached some of Israel’s northern border towns.
Before the attacks on Thursday, Israeli military Arabic spokesperson Col. Avichay Adraee issued warnings to eight buildings in Tyre and the surrounding neighborhoods. Many people have fled the area.
Further north in the city of Sidon, an Israeli drone struck an apartment building where some displaced families lived, killing five people and wounding 21 others, among them five children. Among the killed was Hossan Zeidan, who was once a correspondent for Iran’s Arabic-language al-Aalam television.
In the nearby coastal town of Adloun, an Israeli drone struck a car with a family that was fleeing, killing six people, of whom four were two children and their parents, the Lebanese Health Ministry said. Another drone strike that came without warning killed two people on a motorcycle near Tyre. The target of the attack was not immediately clear, NNA reported.
Elsewhere near the city of Nabatieh, the Lebanese military said a soldier was killed in an Israeli drone strike while he was driving his motorcycle.
Israel has struggled to fend off growing attacks on troops in southern Lebanon and northern Israel by Hezbollah’s first-person view drones, which are largely impervious to jamming technology. The terror group has also fired rockets and other types of UAVs, hitting both military and civilian targets.
The group said Thursday it has launched several attacks on Israeli troops and tanks that have crossed the Litani River into the town of Zawtar al-Sharqieh near Nabatiyeh, as close-range fighting continues.
Washington approved Israeli plans to expand fighting against Hezbollah in the coming days, but warned Jerusalem against striking in Beirut amid concerns of hurting US talks with Iran on a deal, multiple Hebrew outlets reported Tuesday evening, citing Israeli officials.
A senior Israeli official told Channel 12, “There is approval for targeted assassinations in Beirut if an operational opportunity presents itself.”
Senior Israeli officials similarly acknowledged to Channel 13: “We have freedom of action in southern Lebanon – less so in Beirut. We do not want to be perceived as undermining President Donald Trump’s agreement with Iran.”
Lebanese and Israeli military officials are set to hold their first security talks on Friday in the US capital. The talks have extended a nominal ceasefire that went into effect on April 17, although the attacks have since intensified, while sparing the capital, Beirut.
Hezbollah has dismissed the talks and instead endorsed its key ally Iran, which has made ending the war in Lebanon a condition for its own talks with Washington, brokered by Pakistan.
The US is seeking a ceasefire agreement with Iran to end a war that began with joint US-Israeli strikes on the Islamic Republic on February 28 in a bid to compel Iran to abandon its nuclear weapon aspiration. A fragile temporary ceasefire has been in place since early April, but the two sides traded fire overnight Wednesday and Thursday morning.
Over 1 million people in Lebanon have been displaced by the war between Israel and Hezbollah, which was sparked when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel on March 2 in solidarity with Iran, two days after the Iran war began.
The Times of Israel Community.