Israel attacks Beirut, targets Hezbollah chief of staff

Multiple Israeli officials on Monday condemned settler violence in the occupied West Bank following several attacks reported in the last few weeks.

The latest incident was in the Jab'a area where dozens of Israelis allegedly set fires and vandalized homes and cars, the Israel Defense Fores said.

The IDF said it “views such actions with severity and condemns any form of violence, which harms the security in the area and risks destabilization.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he’s strengthening security forces.

“I view with great seriousness the violent riots and the attempt to take the law into their own hands by a handful of extremists who do not represent the settlers in Judea and Samaria,” he said. “I call on law enforcement authorities to bring the rioters to justice.”

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement, “We will not accept the attempts of a handful of violent and criminal anarchists to take the law into their own hands and tarnish the settler public, and we will not allow them to harm IDF soldiers, undermine order, or divert forces from the missions of protecting Israeli citizens and thwarting Palestinian terrorism.”

-ABC News’ Will Gretsky

The Israel Defense Forces on Monday claimed the killing of what it said was a Hezbollah local representative in southern Lebanon.

The IDF posted a video to X showing what it said was the killing of Muhammad Ali Shuaikh. The IDF claimed Shuaikh was "a local representative of the Hezbollah terrorist organization in the village of Al-Mansouri."

The IDF alleged that Shuaikh "was responsible for the connection between the organization and the residents of the village on military and economic issues."

Israel is continuing regular airstrikes in southern Lebanon targeting what it says are Hezbollah members and infrastructure.

The continued strikes come despite a ceasefire deal signed one year ago, under the terms of which both Hezbollah and Israel agreed to withdraw from southern Lebanon. Israeli forces are still deployed to five positions in the south of the country.

The IDF said on Sunday that its forces are continuing operations in Lebanon to "locate and dismantle terrorist infrastructure."

The IDF also claimed to have struck five "terrorist targets" and killed three Hezbollah operatives in southern Lebanon over the past week.

Israeli forces fired at United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon -- UNIFIL -- troops in southern Lebanon on Sunday, an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson confirmed.

IDF international spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said on X that the incident occurred in the El Hamames area in southern Lebanon, when IDF troops fired "warning shots" at "two suspects."

"After a review, it was determined that the suspects were U.N. soldiers who were conducting a patrol in the area and were classified as suspects due to poor weather conditions," Shoshani said. "The incident is under examination."

UNIFIL said earlier on Sunday that its personnel came under Israeli fire "from a Merkava tank from near a position Israel has established in Lebanese territory."

"Heavy machine gun rounds hit approximately five meters from the peacekeepers, who were on foot and had to take shelter in the terrain," UNIFIL said.

"Peacekeepers asked for the IDF to stop firing through UNIFIL's liaison channels," the force added. "They were able to leave safely thirty minutes later, when the Merkava tank withdrew inside the IDF position." There were no casualties, UNIFIL said.

"Yet again, we call on the IDF to cease any aggressive behavior and attacks on or near peacekeepers, who are working to support the return to the stability that both Israel and Lebanon say they seek," UNIFIL said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a Sunday cabinet meeting that his government's opposition to Palestinian statehood "has not changed one bit," as Israeli officials mobilize against a U.S.-backed United Nations Security Council resolution that is expected to go to a vote on Monday.

The U.S. is hoping to secure consensus on its plan for post-war Gaza, but Israeli leaders have pushed back on any hint of future Palestinian statehood. Regional U.S. partners like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar and Turkey are all advocating for a credible path to Palestinian statehood as part of any settlement.

The U.S. draft resolution says that after reforms to the Palestinian Authority are "faithfully carried out and Gaza redevelopment has advanced, the conditions may be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood."

According to a readout published by his office on Sunday, Netanyahu said, "Our opposition to a Palestinian state in any territory west of the Jordan [River], this opposition is existing, valid and has not changed one bit."

"I have been rebuffing these attempts for decades and I am doing it both against pressures from outside and against pressures from within," the prime minister said. "So, I do not need affirmations, tweets or lectures from anyone."

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz wrote in The Washington Post on Friday that a "refusal to back this resolution is a vote either for the continued reign of Hamas terrorists or for the return to war with Israel, condemning the region and its people to perpetual conflict."

"Every departure from this path, be it by those who wish to play political games or to re-litigate the past, will come with a real human cost," Waltz wrote.

-ABC News' Jordana Miller and Somayeh Malekian