October 21, 2026
South Lebanon is witnessing a large-scale field escalation, following a wave of continuous Israeli attacks that included air strikes, artillery shelling, and sweeping operations with machine guns, in conjunction with military movements and threats targeting civilians in a number of towns.
In the town of Baraashit, citizen Ibrahim Ali Ismail, residing in the basement of the town’s clinic building, received a phone call that included an Israeli threat to bomb his house, prompting his immediate evacuation as a precautionary measure. The mayor, Abbas Farhat, confirmed the evacuation of the house immediately after receiving the call, indicating that the Lebanese Army is continuing to determine the nature of the call and is communicating with the joint coordination mechanism (“the mechanism”) to clarify the reality of the situation.
On the ground, the “Lebanon Debate” correspondent reported that an Israeli robotic tank entered at midnight from the direction of the town of Mansouri towards a point close to the Lebanese army checkpoint in Al-Amiriyah, where it stayed for a short period before withdrawing. In the air context, an Israeli drone flew this morning at a very low altitude over Tibnin Governmental Hospital amid escalating tension.
During the night hours, Israeli warplanes carried out a series of air strikes that resulted in targeting the town of Hadada with three raids, Wadi Al-Hujair with two raids, Kafr Benit with one raid, and the Baraashit Reserve with two raids, in addition to two raids that targeted the town of Talusah.
As the dawn hours arrived, the escalation turned into artillery shelling that targeted the towns of Kafr Tibnit and Doha Kafr Rumman, and the outskirts of Tulin and Ghandouriya from the valley side, as well as Hadada and Wadi Saluki. This coincided with sweeping operations with machine guns targeting the surroundings of the towns of Khiam and Kafr Shuba, in light of a continuing state of tension extending across various regions of the south.
