QATAR PERSPECTIVE

Doha, May 25, 2026. In Arabic, Israeli military spokesman Colonel Avichay Adraee ordered residents of ten villages in southern Lebanon to leave their homes "immediately" and move at least 1,000 meters away. The timing: early Monday morning. The stated reason: "Hezbollah ceasefire violations." But for Al Jazeera, whose coverage forms the backbone of regional news in the Gulf, the context differs sharply.

From early Monday, Israeli drones struck three vehicles on the Kafr Rumman-Jarmaq route and the Jarmaq-Khardali axis in Nabatieh region. Three people were killed, according to Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA). The day before, on Sunday, six others died in separate strikes: two young men on a motorcycle in al-Namiriya, another in al-Duweir, a Syrian in Abba, a man in Jebchit, and a medic hit by a drone while inspecting an already-struck site in Arab Salim. One death also reported in Bazouriyeh, in the Tyr region.

The turning point came Monday night: Benjamin Netanyahu released a video on Telegram ordering his military to intensify strikes to "crush" Hezbollah. "We are at war with Hezbollah, and we will intensify our strikes," he stated, adding he had ordered to "step on the accelerator even more." Israel then announced attacks on Hezbollah infrastructure in the Bekaa Valley and other Lebanese areas.

What stands out in Qatari analysis is the systematic contextualization: the offensive occurs despite the ceasefire signed last month with Lebanon, recently extended, which Tel Aviv disregards without compelling operational explanation. Analysts and human rights observers cited by Al Jazeera are clear: Netanyahu deliberately blocks any peace process to satisfy far-right coalition allies and voters, with September national elections in focus.

The same logic applies to Gaza. Since the "ceasefire" of November 2025, at least 880 Palestinians have been killed, bringing the total to 72,797 deaths according to Gaza's health ministry. Mai El-Sheikh, spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office in Palestine, tells Al Jazeera that Israel has converted this ceasefire into cover for ongoing military operations, and a humanitarian catastrophe is deliberately constructed through restrictions on food and medicine.

Doha thus places Lebanon strikes within a coherent regional continuum: a calculated escalation strategy driven by a far-right coalition government, disregarding international de-escalation mechanisms—even as Washington and Tehran attempt to finalize a peace agreement.