Amid Ceasefire, Israeli Strikes on Lebanon Kill 11

Israel unleashed its largest wave of airstrikes across Lebanon since agreeing to a ceasefire with Hezbollah last week, killing at least 11 people on Monday after the Lebanese militant group fired a volley of projectiles as a warning over what it said were Israeli truce violations. The projectiles were apparently the first time that Hezbollah took aim at Israeli forces after the 60-day ceasefire went into effect last Wednesday, the AP reports. The increasingly fragile truce aimed to end more than a year of war between Hezbollah and Israel—part of a wider regional conflict sparked by the devastating Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The White House's national security spokesperson downplayed the significance of the Monday strikes, saying the conflict went from "dozens" of strikes per day down to one or two and that "largely speaking, the ceasefire is holding."

Lebanon's Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike on the southern village of Haris killed five people and wounded two while another airstrike on the village of Tallousa killed four and also wounded two. Israel's military carried out a string of airstrikes late Monday against what it said were Hezbollah fighters, infrastructure, and rocket launchers across Lebanon, in response to Hezbollah firing two projectiles toward Mount Dov—a disputed Israeli-held territory known as Shebaa Farms in Lebanon where the borders of Lebanon, Syria, and Israel meet. Israel said the projectiles fell in open areas and no injuries were reported.

Hezbollah said in a statement that it fired on an Israeli military position in the area as a "defensive and warning response" after what it called "repeated violations" of the ceasefire deal by Israel. It said complaints to mediators tasked with monitoring the ceasefire "were futile in stopping these violations." Meanwhile, in the United States, President-elect Donald Trump demanded the immediate release of Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian militant Hamas group in Gaza, saying on social media that if they are not freed before he takes office in January there would be "HELL TO PAY." It was not immediately clear whether Trump was threatening to directly involve the US military in Israel's ongoing war in Gaza. (It was also revealed Monday that an American listed as a hostage in Gaza was actually killed by Hamas.)