Israel expanded its ground assault in Lebanon on Sunday with its broadest incursion into the country for a quarter of a century as Hezbollah — Iran’s most powerful regional ally — stepped up its attacks on Israel’s north.
According to the Israeli military, Hezbollah fired more than 300 “projectiles” at its soldiers in Lebanon and at northern Israel over the weekend. The latest escalation has shattered a brittle ceasefire declared after the Tehran-backed group attacked Israel in response to its war on Iran, which it launched with the US on Feb. 28.
Topping a military operation that started several days ago, the Israeli Defense Forces said in a statement that they’d crossed the Litani River and are near Shi’ite-majority Nabatieh — one of the biggest cities in south Lebanon — which the IDF describes as a stronghold of Hezbollah.
Israel Katz, the Israeli defense minister, said the IDF had planted an Israeli flag on the historic Beaufort castle near Nabatieh and added that the military seizure in Lebanon established “a permanent presence” in the region.
The escalation comes after the US hosted the fourth round of ceasefire talks between Israel and Lebanon earlier this week. Lebanon is demanding a complete truce and Israel wants a guarantee that Hezbollah — which has rejected the negotiations and isn’t taking part in them — is completely uprooted from Lebanon’s south.
Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah resumed after the militant wing of the group started firing missiles at northern Israel in March in response to the war on Iran. Israel has responded with a series of devastating airstrikes on southern Lebanon and in Beirut, killing 3,370 people and wounding 10,000 others, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
More than 20 Israeli soldiers have been killed as well as four Israeli civilians. Many residents in communities close to the border with Lebanon have abandoned their homes. Israeli schools in a zone stretching 20 kilometers south of the border have been instructed to shutdown and restrictions have been imposed on public gatherings.
While Israel intensified its operations in Lebanon, the Islamic Republic and Washington have been locked in a standoff over an initial agreement that would end both Iran’s effective choke-hold over shipping in the oil-rich Persian Gulf and a US blockade of Iranian ports, potentially paving the way for a permanent ceasefire between the long-time foes.
Iran has demanded that any peace deal with the US include an end to the conflict in Lebanon. President Donald Trump had suggested earlier in the week that an agreement with Iran was near, but the absence of any announcement after a two-hour Situation Room meeting on Friday was the latest conflicting signal from Washington over the prospects for a deal with Tehran.
Israel’s latest military advance may complicate those talks as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and political hardliners at the center of Iran’s wartime leadership face pressure to secure some tangible gains having successfully leveraged their geographic dominance over the critical Strait of Hormuz and withstood weeks of military bombardment amid a major economic crisis.
“This campaign is not yet over. We stand united and determined to crush Hezbollah’s power and complete our mission: ensuring lasting security for the residents of the North,” Katz said in a statement.
Thousands of residents of dozens of towns and villages in south Lebanon have been ordered to leave their homes by the IDF ahead of its attacks on Hezbollah targets and deeper push into the region. The displacement is compounding an already-dire humanitarian situation.
Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said his country didn’t choose this war with Israel and said negotiations were the least costly alternative. “Do the negotiations come with guaranteed result? Certainly not. But it’s the least costly path for our country and our people compared with today’s alternatives,” Salam told reporters at the Grand Serail on Saturday night.
Israel has also started scaling up its operations in Gaza in recent weeks as it prepares to expand its occupation of the devastated Palestinian enclave to 70% of the land, in line with a directive issued by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu did not give a time frame for the expanded land seizure, which would further stretch an Israeli military that’s been at war for the past two and half years. The multi-front conflict sparked by Hamas’ attack on Israel in October 2023 is the longest and most expensive in the Jewish State’s history bearing a price tag of 405 billion shekels through the end of this year according to the Bank of Israel.
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