December 30, 2025 | FDD's Long War Journal

Israeli operations in Lebanon against Hezbollah: December 22–28, 2025

David Daoud

Senior Fellow
December 30, 2025 | FDD's Long War Journal

Israeli operations in Lebanon against Hezbollah: December 22–28, 2025

David Daoud

Senior Fellow

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conducted numerous operations throughout Lebanon against Hezbollah between December 22 and December 28, 2025. Israeli activities last week were concentrated in south Lebanon, targeting alleged Hezbollah assets on both sides of the Litani River, but also reached Hezbollah assets and personnel as far north as Hermel and Hawsh Sayyed Ali in the country’s northeast. Israeli operations included strikes on Hezbollah assets and Radwan Force training camps, as well as targeted killings—including the IDF killing a Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) soldier whom it claimed was a dual Lebanese Military Intelligence and Hezbollah member.

The IDF conducted operations in 22 Lebanese locales, some of them more than once. These activities included:

  • Airstrikes: Seven(+)
  • Artillery strikes: One
  • Detonations: Two
  • Drone strikes: Two
  • Flares: One
  • Ground activities: Three
  • Quadcopter activities: 11

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Baalbek-Hermel Governorate

  • Hermel District: Hawsh Sayyed Ali and Hermel

Nabatieh Governorate

  • Bint Jbeil District: Aitaroun, Ayta ash Shaab, and Ramieh
  • Hasbaya District: Kfarshouba and Shebaa
  • Marjayoun District: Aitaroun-Blida,Adaisseh, Houla, Kfar Kela, Meiss al Jabal, Safad al Bateekh, Tel Hamames, and Wazzani
  • Nabatieh District: Breij, Houmine, and Numeiriyeh

South Lebanon Governorate

  • Jezzine District: Mount Safi
  • Sidon District: Aqnit-Maamariyah-Quneitra and Beslaya-Kfar Malki
  • Tyre District: Janata

Casualties

Between December 22 and 28, 2025, Israeli operations in Lebanon killed six people, including five militants of various affiliations and one LAF soldier who was also an alleged Hezbollah operative, and wounded an unidentified person.

  • December 22, 2025: Three alleged Hezbollah operatives were killed.
  • December 23, 2025: No casualties were reported.
  • December 24, 2025: One unidentified individual was wounded.
  • December 25, 2025: One Hezbollah operative was killed, one Lebanese Resistance Brigades operative was killed, and one Qods Force operative was killed.
  • December 26, 2025: No casualties were reported.
  • December 27, 2025: No casualties were reported.
  • December 28, 2025: No casualties were reported.

Chronology of Israeli operations against Hezbollah, December 22–28, 2025

December 22

  • At 2:09 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli drone targeted a vehicle on the Aqnit-Maamariyah-Quneitra road in the South Lebanon Governorate’s Sidon District. The strike killed three people. The IDF later released a statement saying that the casualties were Ali Hassan Abdallah, Mustafa Mohammad Ballout, and Hassan Khodor Issa, misidentified in the IDF statement as Hassaan Hamdan. The IDF alleged all three were Hezbollah operatives “involved in advancing terror initiatives against IDF troops and involved in restoring Hezbollah’s installations near Sidon.” The IDF claimed that Ali Abdallah was a member of Lebanese Military Intelligence while also serving as a Hezbollah operative, and another one of the fatalities was part of Hezbollah’s aerial defense forces in the Sidon sector. The Lebanese Armed Forces and Hezbollah both denied Abdallah’s membership in Hezbollah. LAF’s official eulogy of Abdallah described him as “First Sergeant Ali Abdallah from the Support Brigade – Anti-Armor Regiment.” However, while Abdallah was given an official LAF military funeral in his hometown of Houmine, pictures from the event indicate it was conducted jointly with Hezbollah, with the group giving Ballout and Issa an official military funeral—implicitly claiming them as its operatives—alongside Abdallah.
  • At 4:44 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli quadcopter dropped a stun explosive on the outskirts of Ayta ash Shaab in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Bint Jbeil District. Israeli forces also directed machine-gun fire toward the outskirts of Aitaroun in the Bint Jbeil District.
Left to Right: Hassan Khodor Issa, Mustafa Mohammad Ballout, and Ali Hassan Abdallah. (Avichay Adraee on Telegram)
The joint funeral of Mustafa Mohammad Ballout (Left), Ali Hassan Abdallah (Center), and Hassan Khodor Issa (Right). (Al-Akhbar News on X)

December 23

  • At 9:33 am, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli quadcopter dropped an explosive near alleged farmers on the outskirts of Wazzani in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Marjayoun District.
  • At 10:26 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that Israeli artillery targeted the outskirts of Ramieh in the South Lebanon Governorate’s Bint Jbeil District.

December 24

  • NNA Lebanon reported that at approximately 10:00 am, several Israeli airstrikes targeted the wadi of Numeiriyeh in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Nabatieh District.
  • NNA Lebanon reported that at 10:15 am, an Israeli airstrike targeted the wadi of Houmine in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Nabatieh District.
  • NNA Lebanon reported that sometime in the evening, an Israeli drone targeted a vehicle in Janata in the South Lebanon Governorate’s Tyre District. The strike wounded one unidentified person who happened to be passing by.

December 25

  • NNA Lebanon reported that at dawn, Israeli forces detonated two homes in the lower neighborhood of Kfar Kela in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Marjayoun District
  • NNA Lebanon reported that at dawn, two Israeli quadcopters dropped fragmentation explosives in Houla in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Marjayoun District, damaging an excavator and several vehicles.
  • NNA Lebanon reported that at dawn, an Israeli quadcopter dropped a stun explosive on Adaisseh in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Marjayoun District.
  • At 10:03 am, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli airstrike targeted a vehicle on the road to Hawsh Sayyed Ali in the Baalbek-Hermel Governorate’s Hermel District. The strike killed two people, who were transferred to the Batoul Hospital in Hermel, which is owned and operated by Hezbollah’s Islamic Health Committee. The casualties were later announced as Hezbollah auxiliary militia Lebanese Resistance Brigades operative Majed Abdelamir Qanso, whose nom de guerre was Abu Ali, from Hermel, and Hussain Mahmoud Al Jawhari, also from Hermel. Hezbollah gave Qanso and Jawhari an official joint funeral in their hometown. The IDF later released a statement claiming to have targeted and killed Hussain Mahmoud Marshad al Jawhari “near Nasriyeh,” claiming he was a “central operative in the Operational Unit of the Quds Force (Unit 840)” of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC-QF). The statement alleged Jawhari had been “involved in recent years in planning and advancing terror initiatives against the State of Israel from Syria and Lebanon.” It also claimed Jawhari operated under direct IRGC-QF control as part of Unit 840, “headed by Asghar Bagheri and his deputy Mohammad Reza Ansari […] responsible for directing and overseeing Iranian terror activity against the State of Israel.”
Majed Abdel Amir Qanso’s funeral poster (Left, Al Manar) and Hussain Mahmoud Al Jawhari (Right, @ahmadhamieh313 on X).
  • NNA Lebanon reported that at 2:30 pm, an Israeli drone targeted a vehicle at the entrance of Safad al Bateekh in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Marjayoun District. The strike killed one person. Hezbollah-affiliated social media later announced the death of Hezbollah operative Mohammad Ibrahim Alaeddine, whose nom de guerre was Abu Ali Mortada, from Majdal Selm. Hezbollah gave Alaeddine an official funeral in his hometown. The IDF later released a statement claiming to have targeted and killed a Hezbollah operative “near Jumayjimiyah involved in Hezbollah’s regeneration efforts in the area […] in violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”
Death announcement for Mohammad Ibrahim Alaeddine. (Balagh Media Telegram)
  • At 5:07 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli quadcopter dropped two fragmentation explosives between Aitaroun and Blida in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Marjayoun District.
  • At 6:20 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli quadcopter dropped explosives on Kilo 9 between Blida and Aitaroun, while another quadcopter dropped an incendiary explosive on an uninhabited home in Aitaroun, setting it on fire.
  • At 6:46 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that Israeli forces positioned inside the IDF’s Tel Hamames post in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Marjayoun District directed machine-gun fire toward the surrounding area.

December 26

  • At 10:23 am, NNA Lebanon reported that Israeli airstrikes targeted the barrens of Hermel in the Baalbek-Hermel Governorate’s Hermel District.
  • At 10:33 am, NNA Lebanon reported that several Israeli airstrikes targeted Mount Safi in the South Lebanon Governorate’s Jezzine District and Breij in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Nabatieh District.
  • At 10:38 am, NNA Lebanon reported that several Israeli airstrikes targeted the wadi of Beslaya-Kfar Malki in the South Lebanon Governorate’s Sidon District.
  • At 10:25 am, the IDF released a statement on the preceding airstrikes, claiming to have targeted several Hezbollah installations throughout Lebanon. The IDF alleged these strikes included targeting a military training compound belonging to Hezbollah’s Radwan Force commando unit, which it alleged was used to train the group’s operatives to conduct terror attacks against the IDF and Israeli citizens. The Israeli military also said it struck several weapons storage facilities and unspecified Hezbollah military positions and installations whose existence “constituted a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”
  • At 11:38 am, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli quadcopter dropped a stun explosive in Adaisseh in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Marjayoun District.
  • At 11:22 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli quadcopter dropped two stun explosives near Khallet Wardeh in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Bint Jbeil District, and another Israeli quadcopter dropped a stun explosive in the Dabbakeh neighborhood of Meiss al Jabal in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Marjayoun District.

December 27

  • No operations were reported.

December 28

  • At 8:59 am, NNA Lebanon reported that Israeli forces positioned inside Israel directed heavy machine-gun fire toward Kfarshouba in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Hasbaya District, damaging several houses.
  • At 11:06 am, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli quadcopter dropped a stun explosive in the Amra area of Wazzani in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Marjayoun District.
  • At 9:48 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that Israeli artillery fired three flares over Naqqar Pond south of Shebaa in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Hasbaya District.

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David Daoud is Senior Fellow at at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies where he focuses on Israel, Hezbollah, and Lebanon affairs.

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