The IDF launched a new wave of airstrikes in southern Lebanon early Thursday morning, and N12 News reported, citing Lebanese media, that four people were killed. The strikes came after the military issued an evacuation warning for civilians in the area of the strikes on Wednesday, the first such warning since June. People were told to move at least 1,000 meters north of the village of Al-Mansouri. The machinery of war and the machinery of warning moved together, as they usually do.
The State's Monopoly
The IDF said the strikes were retaliation for what it called blatant ceasefire violations by Hezbollah. Its Arabic Spokesperson, Lt.-Col. Ella Waweya, posted the evacuation warning for Al-Mansouri on X/Twitter and warned that anyone who remains near Hezbollah facilities or terrorists is putting their life at risk. That’s the language of a military that claims the right to define danger, designate targets, and decide who gets to stay put and who gets pushed out of their homes.
Also on Wednesday, Walla reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was delaying the military response against Hezbollah because of fears of American criticism. The report put the usual hierarchy on display: the battlefield, the cabinet room, and Washington’s shadow all shaping the same violence. The people in southern Lebanon get the airstrikes either way.
The strikes came as Israeli and Lebanese delegations met in Rome for a second day of talks on the continued implementation of a plan for Hezbollah disarmament, IDF withdrawal and Lebanese military deployment. The talks followed a US-brokered framework reached on June 26 that called for Hezbollah’s disarmament, the deployment of the Lebanese Armed Forces across southern Lebanon and a gradual Israeli withdrawal. The negotiations have focused on turning those principles into practical arrangements. The paperwork keeps moving. The bombs do too.
The Oslo-Style Arrangement Machine
As part of an initial pilot program, Lebanese troops have deployed in Froun, Srifa and Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh. Israel withdrew from Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh before the Lebanese deployment, while the other two communities were already outside the IDF-held security zone. The program is intended to test whether the Lebanese military can clear designated areas of Hezbollah weapons and prevent the group from reestablishing a military presence. In other words, one armed authority is asked to replace another, and civilians are left to live inside the experiment.
Military activity has continued alongside the diplomatic process. Israel said it remains deployed in a security zone in southern Lebanon to prevent attacks on northern communities, and it has continued targeting Hezbollah operatives and infrastructure it says violate the ceasefire arrangements. In July, the IDF said troops operating in Haddatha destroyed more than 90 Hezbollah sites and located more than 150 weapons during a month of operations. The state counts sites and weapons; the people living nearby count shattered routines, displacement, and the next warning on their phones.
Middle East Eye reported that Hezbollah violation had prompted an Israeli response that had not ended and that sensitive operations were likely under way. The same report said Lebanese-Israeli peace talks had entered a third day in Rome in the seventh round of US-brokered negotiations, that Lebanese negotiators were demanding that Israel cease bombardment and withdraw from around 60 villages and towns occupied in its latest onslaught, which began in March, and that Israel wanted the Lebanese army to dismantle Hezbollah's military infrastructure. It also said Israeli reports suggested additional military attacks in Lebanon were being considered, that Israel's public broadcaster said the army's response to what it described as Hezbollah violation “has not ended,” and that Channel 12 reported the army was calling on the political leadership to approve a “stronger and more decisive” response in Lebanon.
Who Pays for the Talks
Meanwhile, eight people were wounded in an Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese town of Burj Shemali, the country's health ministry reported on Thursday. Earlier, Israeli forces escalated attacks on southern Lebanon, with state media reporting a “wide-scale aggression” on the city of Tyre. As a result of the strikes across several areas in the city, four people were wounded and transferred to nearby hospitals, and residents were displaced. The delegations met in Rome. The wounded stayed in Lebanon.
The whole arrangement runs on the same logic: armed institutions negotiate over territory, disarmament, deployment, and withdrawal while civilians absorb the consequences. The framework reached on June 26, less than 2 months ago, promised a sequence of security measures. The reality on the ground, in the fifth month of the Israeli onslaught in Lebanon, is evacuation orders, airstrikes, wounded civilians, and a diplomatic process that keeps asking armed actors to manage the violence they already control.