A man sits on a beach as smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on the Rashidieh Palestinian refugee camp in the Tyre district of southern Lebanon on May 25, 2026.(AFP)
An Israeli airstrike on a village in eastern Lebanon killed 12 people, state media said on May 26, as an Israeli official said the military called up more troops to Lebanon.
The strike hit the village of Mashghara in the Bekaa Valley late on May 25, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency.
It came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he authorized more intensive strikes targeting the Hezbollah militant group across Lebanon.
The Israeli military did not comment on this particular strike, but said that it was targeting Hezbollah infrastructure in eastern Lebanon.
An Israeli security official said the military had called up an additional battalion to Lebanon.
Rescue workers say that a dozen bodies were pulled out of the rubble following an intense wave of overnight strikes targeting swaths of southern and eastern Lebanon.
The intensified attacks come three days before Lebanese and Israeli military delegations are set to meet in Washington for direct talks.
Hezbollah is attacking Israeli troops in southern Lebanon and northern Israeli towns, and has vowed to continue fighting until Israel stops its daily airstrikes and withdraws its troops from the country.
In recent weeks, Hezbollah has boasted that it is using new fiber-optic drones that Israeli troops have struggled to intercept, hitting both Israeli troops and northern border villages.
Israel has updated its defensive guidelines in line with the recent developments in its northern areas, telling people not to gather in large numbers.
“What this requires of us now is to increase the blows, to increase the intensity. We will smite them hip and thigh,” Netanyahu said in a video posted on social media ahead of the strikes.
The Lebanese government hopes that the direct talks with Israel, opposed by Hezbollah, will lead to a ceasefire.
Over 1 million people in Lebanon have been displaced in the war, which was sparked by Hezbollah firing rockets into northern Israel on March 2 in solidarity with Iran.
3,185 people in Lebanon have been killed in Israeli strikes since the start of the war.
“By just saying a few words on TV he [Netanyahu] causes everyone to panic and flee their homes,” said Tony Aboud, in Beirut’s bustling Hamra district. “I don’t know what’s going to happen and how long we can live like this.”
