Israel Targets Hezbollah Underground Infrastructure With Explosions In Southern Lebanon, UN Warns Escalation

Israel released video evidence of “massive explosions” in southern Lebanon, depicting detonations as Israeli forces target Hezbollah’s underground infrastructure as part of declared “security zone” operations.

The Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah accuses Israel of being behind the pager maneuver in Lebanon, and the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon warned on Tuesday, September 17, that the pager explosions mark an “extremely worrying escalation.”

Al Jazeera

In southern Lebanon, Israeli drones struck a vehicle in the town of Sadikin in the Tyre District, leaving two people injured, while the Israeli army carried out a sweep toward Hadatha in the Bint Jbeil District and bombings in Markaba in the Marjayoun District, Kufartiniet in the Nabatieh District, and Beit Yahun.

The Israeli army also announced the death of a Hezbollah member in the Ali al-Taḥir Heights, saying he was spotted as he exited an underground facility and was targeted by an airstrike, and it said it ended the Givati Brigade’s mission in southern Lebanon after eight months of operations.

In Beirut and the southern suburbs, the Lebanese National News Agency reported that Israeli unmanned aircraft flew over Beirut and the southern suburbs, as the Lebanon–Israel Framework Agreement 2026 awaited implementation and negotiations moved toward Rome.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said that separating the path from the Iranian–American track is a sovereign decision, and he argued that “the framework formula does not legalize the occupation of Israel in Lebanon but provides for enabling the Lebanese army to extend its control over all Lebanese territory.”

Speaker of the Parliament Nabih Berri warned that any harm to the Lebanese Army commander or any attempt to undermine him would lead to the country’s ruin, stressing that civil and political stability is a trust he will not abandon under any circumstances.

Al Jazeera

The European Union welcomed the “Framework Agreement,” which it said calls for the disarmament of Hezbollah and enables the Israeli army to redeploy gradually outside Lebanese territory, while the UN-backed approach was framed as a path to de-escalation and restoring Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

In a separate reaction to the pager explosions, Hezbollah said Israel would “receive its just punishment” following what it called “this ‘criminal aggression,’” while Hamas described the attack as a “Zionist terrorist aggression.”

The Israeli military, meanwhile, released video showing “huge explosions and detonations in villages in southern Lebanon,” saying it was targeting Hezbollah infrastructure and tunnels, and Al Jazeera also reported that a US military delegation met Lebanon’s army in Beirut to discuss Israel’s planned withdrawal from a ‘pilot zone’.

Lebanon conditioned its participation in the sixth round of Lebanese-Israeli negotiations in Rome on Israel withdrawing from two experimental zones in the south, with a diplomatic source close to the talks cited by AFP saying the withdrawal was a prerequisite for taking part in the new round.

An American official told AFP, “We are now in the stage of implementing the framework,” adding that “The first experimental area will be launched within days,” while maps for additional experimental areas were being drawn and planned.

In the south, the Bint Jbeil Municipality condemned destruction operations, saying explosions and demolition of buildings were accompanied by the use of more than 20 heavy excavators for wide-scale earthworks, and it accused Israeli forces of stealing contents from homes before destroying them and looting iron and construction materials after backfilling.

Displacement figures also shaped the immediate stakes, with the International Organization for Migration reporting “646,107 returning displaced people have been reported,” while around 500,000 people remain displaced based on data collected in coordination with local authorities since June 22.

The UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon urged “all parties concerned to refrain from any further action (...) that could trigger a broader conflagration,” as the pager explosions and ongoing strikes continued to raise tensions around the implementation timeline.