The IDF said it launched a wave of airstrikes Monday against Hezbollah infrastructure in the Beqaa Valley and several areas of southern Lebanon as a fragile ceasefire appeared to be rapidly unraveling just days after it was extended.

The strikes came following repeated recent attacks by the Iran-backed terror group on IDF troops and Israel during the truce, including a deadly drone attack in Lebanon the previous day that killed an IDF soldier and wounded six. Lebanon’s president, whose government is holding historic direct talks with Israel amid the ceasefire, condemned Hezbollah for the strikes.

No further details were immediately given by the IDF on the strikes.

Amid the ongoing violence, officials in northern Israel announced that school would be canceled for at least one day, part of a range of security measures that were not coordinated with the national government.

Israel has not struck in Lebanon’s eastern Beqaa Valley, which lies about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of the border, in some three weeks, before the ceasefire began on April 17.

Security sources told Reuters strikes had hit near the town of Nabi Chit, near Lebanon’s eastern border with Syria, with no immediate reports of casualties.

Lebanon’s state media agency reported several strikes across the south that left at least three people wounded.

The US-mediated ceasefire has seen ongoing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah but was extended on April 24 for an additional three weeks, US President Donald Trump announced during direct talks in Washington between Israel and Lebanon.

Under the terms of the truce, Israel reserves the right to respond to “planned, imminent or ongoing attacks.” Trump has also said Israel can open fire in self-defense.

Lebanon’s Aoun slams Hezbollah for serving ‘foreign interests’

The talks have been held despite opposition from Hezbollah, which began attacking Israel in support of its sponsor Iran after the US-Israel war with the Islamic Republic began at the end of February. A fragile ceasefire was reached between the US and Iran earlier this month.

Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun told a delegation from villages in southern Lebanon on Monday that negotiating with Israel “is not betrayal,” as Beirut and Jerusalem continued talks aimed at reaching a settlement and potential peace deal.

“Betrayal is carried out by those who take their country to war to serve foreign interests,” he added, in reference to Hezbollah and Iran.

His remarks were published shortly after Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem, whose group is committed to Israel’s destruction, issued a statement reiterating that the group would not give up its weapons and calling the negotiations with Israel a “grave sin.” He asserted that some in Lebanon “reap gains at the expense of the destruction” of the country.

Under a previous truce between Israel and Lebanon that ended a bout of fighting in 2024, Lebanese authorities committed to disarming Hezbollah so that it could no longer launch attacks on Israel.

Aoun said: “How long will the people of the south continue to pay the price for the wars of others on our land? If the war were for Lebanon, we would support it — but when its purpose is to serve the interests of others, I reject the war entirely.”

Hezbollah reportedly threatens suicide bombings

Earlier, Qassem had said in a statement, “We categorically reject direct negotiations with Israel, and those in power should know that their actions will not benefit Lebanon or themselves.”

He said the negotiations were “putting Lebanon in a spiral of instability.”

“These direct negotiations and their outcomes are as if they do not exist for us, and they do not concern us in the slightest,” the terror chief added, saying “we will continue our defensive resistance for Lebanon and its people.”

He said: “There are those who advocate surrender. They reap gains at the expense of the........

© The Times of Israel