Israel Conducts Airstrike on Tulin Town in Southern Lebanon

Israeli warplanes struck the town of Tulin in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, the latest in a sustained campaign of airstrikes that have continued despite a ceasefire agreement reached between Israel and Hezbollah in November 2024. The strike, reported by Al Jazeera Mubasher, hit the predominantly Shia village in the Bint Jbeil district near the border with occupied Palestine, an area that has borne the brunt of Israeli aggression throughout the past two years of regional escalation.

Lebanese civil defense teams rushed to the scene to assess damage and search for casualties, though immediate figures were not available at the time of reporting. Tulin sits within the zone south of the Litani River where, under the terms of the November ceasefire, Israeli forces were supposed to fully withdraw and Lebanese army units were to assume security responsibilities. Israel has failed to comply, maintaining troops at five positions inside Lebanese territory and conducting near-daily strikes on towns and villages across the south.

The attack on Tulin underscores the contradiction at the heart of Israeli rhetoric. While Tel Aviv publicly insists it harbors no occupation aspirations and frames its military operations as defensive, the daily reality on the ground tells a different story. Lebanese sovereignty is repeatedly violated, civilian infrastructure is targeted, and southern villages are rendered uninhabitable through systematic bombardment that has displaced tens of thousands of residents who have been unable to return to their homes nearly a year after the truce was signed.

The Lebanese government has lodged repeated complaints with the United Nations Security Council and the ceasefire monitoring committee co-chaired by the United States and France. Beirut has called on international guarantors to compel Israel to halt its violations and complete its withdrawal. Those appeals have largely gone unanswered, with Washington signaling tacit acceptance of Israeli operations under the pretext of targeting Hezbollah reconstitution efforts.

Qatar has consistently called for full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory and respect for Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial integrity. Doha, which has played a leading mediation role in the regional conflict and continues to host indirect talks on Gaza, views the situation in southern Lebanon as inseparable from the broader question of Israeli compliance with international law. Qatari officials have warned that the unraveling of the Lebanon ceasefire risks dragging the region back into full-scale war at a moment when diplomatic energy should be focused on stabilizing Gaza and advancing reconstruction.

For residents of Tulin and dozens of other southern villages, however, the geopolitical calculations matter little. What they confront is the daily threat of Israeli munitions falling on their homes, schools, and farmland, with no clear path to safety or accountability.