Eleven people, including two children, were killed in Israeli air strikes on the Bekaa Valley village of Mashghara, Lebanon’s health ministry reported — the Israeli military said it targeted Hezbollah infrastructure during one of the heaviest nights of bombardment since a US-brokered ceasefire began in mid-April.

Netanyahu Orders Increased Strikes

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday he had given the instruction to “press the pedal even harder” in targeting Hezbollah — Speaking at a security cabinet meeting on Tuesday, he said Israel was “deepening our operation in Lebanon.”

“The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] is operating with large forces on the ground and seizing dominant terrain,” Netanyahu said, adding that the goal was to “fortify the security zone” to protect northern Israeli communities from Hezbollah attacks.

Escalation Amid Ceasefire Violations

The ceasefire has been repeatedly violated by both sides, raising concerns about the stability of ongoing talks to end the conflict between Israel, the US, and Iran. Israeli air and artillery strikes have continued daily, especially in southern Lebanon, while Hezbollah has launched rockets and drones at northern Israeli communities and troops in southern Lebanon.

Netanyahu said Israel would increase the number and intensity of its strikes targeting Hezbollah in response to attacks, including those involving fibre-optic drones that can evade Israeli defences. “We will deal them a crushing blow,” he vowed.

The announcement prompted panic in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, where residents fled the area, as Thousands of cars lined the streets as families tried to escape for safety, according to reports.

Though the overnight strikes spared the capital, Israeli warplanes carried out wave after wave of attacks across nearly 50 locations. A man and his wife were killed in a strike on their home in the southern town of Arab Salim on Monday evening, and two others were killed in the village of Kauthariyet El Rez, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA).

Lebanese Casualties and Israeli Aerial Footage

Overnight, several homes in Mashghara were destroyed in Israeli strikes, according to NNA, and Unverified video footage on social media showed streets of destroyed and burning buildings, with fires raging.

The Lebanese health ministry said the bodies of 11 people, including one woman and two children, were pulled from the rubble, as Another 15 people were injured, it added.

The Israeli military also released aerial footage from Mashghara that it said showed several strikes on “Hezbollah infrastructure sites where terrorist activity was identified.” “During the strike the terrorists were eliminated,” it added.

The military also said it had struck more than 90 weapons storage facilities, command centres, observation posts and other infrastructure sites used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon overnight.

On Tuesday morning. The military issued new evacuation orders across Lebanon, accusing Hezbollah of violating the terms of a ceasefire between the Israeli and Lebanese governments that came into force on 17 April. The military’s Arabic-language spokesman, Col Avichay Adraee, said Hezbollah’s repeated breaches had left Israeli forces with no choice but to act.

Hezbollah said it targeted three barracks and a military post in northern Israel “in response to the violation of the ceasefire” by Israel.

Netanyahu’s order to intensify the Israeli strikes came after the military said a soldier had been killed in combat in southern Lebanon on Sunday, bringing the total Israeli military losses there from Hezbollah attacks since the conflict began on 2 March to 23, along with one civilian contractor. The Lebanese health ministry says Israeli strikes over the same period have killed at least 3,185 people.