The Israel Defense Forces on Thursday night said it struck several Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, as the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) announced its observers and Lebanese Armed Forces soldiers located a Hezbollah tunnel.

Among the targets struck by Israel were weapon depots and a rocket launcher, according to the military.

The presence of the Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon was a violation of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Lebanon, the IDF said, referring to a November 2024 truce deal.

UNIFIL meanwhile said in a statement that the tunnel found near the southern Lebanese town of Qoussair was “approximately 50 meters” (164 feet) long, and that “several unexploded ordnances” were also found in the area.

“In line with resolution 1701, the findings were handed over to the LAF,” the observer force said, referring to a UN-backed ceasefire resolution between Israel and Hezbollah.

The announcement came as the United Nations Security Council is reviewing a French-drafted resolution to extend the peacekeeping mission, which was established in 1978 and patrols Lebanon’s southern border with Israel. The mandate for UNIFIL is renewed annually, and the council is expected to vote on August 25 before its current authorization expires at the end of the month.

Israel and the United States have reportedly opposed the renewal of the force’s mandate. The latter, a veto-wielding council member, told a closed-door council meeting on Monday that the mission should only be extended for one final year, said diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity.

UNIFIL‘s mandate was expanded in 2006, following a month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah, to allow peacekeepers to help the Lebanese army keep parts of the south free of weapons or armed personnel other than those of the Lebanese state.

The peacekeeping force failed in this objective as Hezbollah effectively established control of southern Lebanon despite the presence of the Lebanese army. The Lebanese terrorist organization’s political faction was also Lebanon’s most powerful political force.

Lebanon’s cabinet this month tasked the army with developing a plan to disarm Hezbollah by the end of the year, which the terrorist organization has vowed to resist, saying it would fight to keep its weapons and threatening that there will be “no life in Lebanon” if attempts are made to relieve it of its arms.

Times of Israel staff and agencies contributed to this report.

As Egypt presses Israel for a response on the latest ceasefire proposal approved by Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instead announced on Wednesday that he was “shortening the timelines” for the IDF’s plans to conquer Gaza City, a day after Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer met with Qatari officials in Paris to discuss the negotiations.

While momentum has mounted over the past few days toward reaching a hostage release deal, Netanyahu has continued to dismiss such efforts, focusing instead of the plan approved by the cabinet earlier this month to intensify fighting in the Gaza Strip, though he has not outright rejected the latest proposal.

In a statement Wednesday evening, Netanyahu said he had instructed the army to “shorten the timelines for seizing the last terror strongholds and for the defeat of Hamas,” referring to the IDF’s upcoming offensive in Gaza City.

The IDF’s plans for the capture of Gaza City are set to be presented to Netanyahu on Thursday, according to military officials.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a Newsmax event in Jerusalem, on August 13, 2025. (Shalev Shalom/POOL)

But Dermer met on Tuesday in Paris with a delegation of senior Qatari officials to discuss the ongoing hostage release and ceasefire negotiations, an Arab diplomat told The Times of Israel.

During the meeting, Dermer reiterated the Israeli stance that it is only interested in a comprehensive deal in which Hamas releases all of the hostages at once and agrees to Jerusalem’s terms for its surrender from power, the Arab diplomat said, confirming a Channel 12 news report.

In his call with Witkoff, Abdelatty updated the US envoy on the latest developments in the ceasefire talks, stressing the need to “seize the current opportunity” to bring about an end to the war, the Egyptian readout said.

Hamas claimed this week that it has agreed to a deal based on the so-called “Witkoff framework,” which would commit the terror group to release 10 living hostages and the bodies of 18 of the slain hostages, in exchange for a 60-day ceasefire and the release by Israel of hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners, amid talks for a permanent end to the war.

On Wednesday, Hamas said Israel’s plans to conquer Gaza City showed its “blatant disregard” for the efforts to broker a ceasefire.

“Today’s announcement by the terrorist occupation army of the start of an operation against Gaza City and its nearly one million residents and displaced persons… demonstrates… a blatant disregard for the efforts made by the mediators,” the Palestinian terror group said in a statement.

“Netanyahu’s disregard for the mediators’ proposal … proves that he is the real obstructionist of any agreement,” it further charged, while saying Israel’s planned operation in Gaza City would fail.