• On May⁠ 29, 2026, a Lebanese Army delegation will meet US and Israeli counterparts at the Pentagon in a tripartite session that goes beyond routine ceasefire management—Washington wants to reshape the entire post-war security architecture of South Lebanon.
• President Jozef Aoun personally coordinated the delegation's instructions with Army Commander General Rudolf Heikal, stressing full Lebanese sovereignty over the South and rejecting any approach that entrenches long-term occupation or creates military realities outside the state's framework.
• The Army's core equation: Israeli withdrawal first, then full Lebanese Army deployment south of the Litani, gradual if necessary—but the delegation flatly rejects any US proposal to create a special unit tasked with disarming Hezbollah, viewing it as a mission that would trigger internal collapse.
• Israel wants a "truly demilitarized" South and long-term guarantees before any significant pullback; Lebanon insists withdrawal must come with a clear timetable, not open-ended conditions.

The backstory: UN Resolution 1701, passed after the 2006 war, called for the Lebanese Army to deploy south of the Litani and for Hezbollah to disarm there. It was never fully implemented. The current conflict reignited those unresolved questions, and Washington is now pushing for a new security framework that goes further than 1701 ever did.

What to watch: Whether the May⁠ 29 meeting produces a concrete "step-by-step" withdrawal-for-deployment formula—or deepens the standoff between Lebanese sovereignty demands and Israeli security guarantees.

• Israel's public broadcaster Kan reported that Hezbollah drones have severely restricted Israeli troop movements in southern Lebanon, with military estimates putting the figure at 80 percent of assaults affected.
• Anti-drone systems are being distributed to only a limited number of Israeli troops due to supply shortages, and some operations have been moved to nighttime to reduce drone attack exposure.
• Hezbollah has deployed cheap fibre-optic first-person-view drones assembled and modified inside southern Lebanon—the fibre-optic tether bypasses radio-signal jamming entirely, making Israeli countermeasures largely ineffective.
• Israel approved $700 million in emergency funding to counter the drone threat, including fixed radar along the northern border and five million specialised shotgun rounds for short-range drone interception.

Zooming out: Since Mar⁠ch 2, Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed more than 3,000 people and displaced at least 1.6 million—roughly a fifth of the population—even as a ceasefire announced Apr⁠il 16 technically remains in effect.

• Hezbollah has released FPV drone footage targeting Israeli positions in occupied southern Lebanon—including a widely shared clip of a drone lowering an Israeli flag in al-Bayada, captioned "Flag lowering ceremony."
• Israeli military intelligence sources told Kan that Hezbollah has abandoned its former command-and-control structure and is now operating guerrilla-style in smaller cells, moving village to village since the assassination of senior Radwan Force commanders.
• Iran-linked animated studio Explosive Media produced Lego-style videos tracking 145 million views in the first weeks of the Iran conflict alone, according to research firm Cyabra—a format that spread to Hezbollah-affiliated accounts in Lebanon.

The bigger picture: The media battle over southern Lebanon mirrors the late-1990s playbook that preceded Israel's May⁠ 2000 withdrawal—where controlling the image of the conflict shaped the political reality that followed.

• US President Donald Trump postponed a planned military attack on Iran this⁠ week after Gulf allies and his own officials warned that resuming the war during the Hajj pilgrimage—set to begin May⁠ 24 for six days—would strand hundreds of thousands of pilgrims and damage Washington's standing in the Muslim world.
• Trump confirmed the pause publicly on Truth Social, citing direct requests from the leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE to hold off, with all three saying a deal could still be reached.
• Two senior Gulf officials and a senior US official told Middle East Eye they expect the conflict to resume in coming weeks once the Hajj period passes; Iran's ongoing blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has already hit oil and gas exports from Gulf states.
• Washington's initial assault on Iran, launched in late Feb⁠ruary, failed to topple the government despite killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei; his son Mojtaba Khamenei has since led Iran's continued resistance while maintaining its missile stockpiles.

What to watch: Whether the post-Hajj window becomes the trigger for resumed strikes—and whether Gulf diplomatic pressure holds once the pilgrimage ends.

• An Israeli soldier named Harel Amshika posted a photo on Instagram in Nov⁠ember showing a bound, blindfolded Palestinian man in a white hazmat suit with the caption "For sale"; the post has since been deleted along with the account.
• Palestinian woman Zahra Shorrab identified the man as her son Mohammed, 41, who has a mental health condition and went missing on Aug⁠ust 20, 2024, after leaving home for evening prayers—his family had no information for almost a year and a half before seeing the photo.
• Legal group Glan coordinated with Israeli organization Hamoked to submit a formal written inquiry to the Israel Prison Service on Feb⁠ruary 26; the service responded that no record of Mohammed Shorrab being detained or held in any of its facilities could be found.
• On Mon⁠day, UN special rapporteurs released a report on the torture of Palestinian detainees that included verified testimony detailing electric shocks, prolonged food deprivation, dogs set on detainees, and enforced disappearances of healthcare workers in Gaza.

The bigger picture: The case has drawn renewed attention to accountability gaps in the treatment of Palestinian detainees at a moment when international legal bodies are under pressure to respond to documented patterns of abuse.

• Elon Musk's SpaceX publicly filed for an initial public offering Wednes⁠day, planning to trade under the ticker SPCX on Nasdaq, with media reports suggesting the company is targeting a Jun⁠e listing and hopes to raise around $75 billion.
• SpaceX generated $18.7 billion in revenue but recorded a net loss of $4.9 billion after heavy spending on AI and a larger rocket; its Starlink satellite business was the primary earner at more than $11.4 billion in revenue, up nearly 50% year-on-year.
• If the company surpasses its targeted valuation of about $1.7 trillion, Musk's net worth would exceed 13 figures, making him the world's first trillionaire; under the IPO structure, Musk would hold around 85% of voting power while retaining roughly 42% of equity.

Zooming out: SpaceX's road-show window opens Jun⁠e 4, and the terms Musk has structured—effectively making him the only person who can remove himself as CEO—are already drawing scrutiny from governance observers ahead of that date.