BEIRUT, (Palestine Foundation Information Center ) Tensions escalated Thursday on Lebanon’s southern front after Israeli warplanes launched multiple airstrikes on the areas of Mahmoudiya and Jarmaq, while also targeting the Jbour Heights in western Bekaa.
Lebanese media reported that the initial strikes hit “open areas,” though the scale of damage remains unclear.
Later in the day, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) renewed their attacks on the same regions, claiming to have struck “terrorist infrastructure and a rocket-launch platform” allegedly belonging to Hezbollah. The IOF described these alleged sites as violations of past understandings between Israel and Lebanon.
In a separate incident, Lebanon’s National News Agency said an Israeli drone dropped a stun grenade on a civilian repairing his house in the town of Kafr Kila, wounding him lightly. The same drone returned minutes later and dropped two more grenades inside the town.
The escalation comes as the Lebanese army began implementing a government-approved plan to bring all weapons under state control, including Palestinian arms stored in refugee camps.
On Thursday, seven trucks loaded with light weapons and B7 rockets left the Rashidieh, Al-Buss, and Burj Al-Shamali camps in the southern city of Tyre, and were transferred to the army’s Second Intervention Regiment in Shawakir.
The arms handover was carried out in the presence of Palestinian consul general in Tyre Ramadan Demeshkiyyeh, Palestinian National Security chief Major General Subhi Abu Arab, southern intelligence chief Suhail Harb, commander of the Second Intervention Regiment Jihad Khaled, intelligence officer Mohammed Hazer, and senior Lebanese army officials.
Last week, the Lebanese army collected weapons from Palestinian factions inside Burj al-Barajneh camp in Beirut’s southern suburb. The move is part of a broader government decision issued on August 5 to restrict all arms, including those of Hezbollah, to the authority of the state. The army has been tasked with finalizing and implementing this disarmament plan before year’s end.
Lebanon hosts more than 493,000 Palestinian refugees, most of whom living in difficult conditions inside 12 UNRWA-recognized camps. These camps have historically been managed by Palestinian factions under informal arrangements dating back to the 1969 Cairo Agreement, while Lebanese security forces are barred from entering. Instead, the army enforces strict measures around their perimeters.
