ZIONIST IMPERIALISM
Israel is preparing plans for a large-scale ground offensive into southern Lebanon aimed at pushing the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah away from the border and dismantling its military infrastructure, according to US and Israeli officials cited by Axios and The Times of Israel.
The operation under discussion would seek to seize territory south of the Litani River, which runs across southern Lebanon and has long served as a strategic dividing line in previous conflicts between Israel and Hezbollah. Officials said the plan gained urgency after Hezbollah launched more than 200 rockets at northern Israel on March 12 in an attack that Israeli officials said was coordinated with Iranian missile strikes.
“We are going to do what we did in Gaza,” a senior Israeli official told Axios, referring to Israel’s campaign to destroy militant infrastructure. “The goal is to take over territory, push Hezbollah’s forces north and away from the border, and dismantle its military positions and weapons depots in the villages,” the official said.
The report comes as Israel has begun reinforcing its northern military command. The Israel Defence Forces said chief of staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir had ordered a “broad reinforcement” of troops in the Northern Command “as part of strengthening readiness for various offensive and defensive scenarios”.
According to the military, the deployment will include units from the standing army, including the 98th Division with two brigade-level combat teams and combat engineering battalions. Reserve forces from the 252nd Division are expected to deploy to Gaza to replace regular units being shifted north.
Israeli authorities have also urged thousands of civilians in parts of southern Lebanon to evacuate, signalling concern that hostilities could intensify in border areas where Hezbollah has built extensive networks of tunnels, weapons depots and fortified positions.
The prospect of a ground operation would revive memories of previous Israeli incursions into Lebanon. After the 1982 Israel-Lebanon war, Israel maintained a security zone in southern Lebanon for nearly two decades before withdrawing in 2000 following prolonged guerrilla warfare with Hezbollah and allied groups.
Under the ceasefire that followed fighting along the border after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks, Lebanon committed to ensuring Hezbollah forces withdrew north of the Litani River, though Israeli officials have repeatedly said the measure was not fully implemented.
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said the group was prepared for a prolonged confrontation. “We have prepared ourselves for a long confrontation, and God willing, they (Israelis) will be surprised on the battlefield,” Qassem said in a televised address on March 14.
Lebanon was drawn more directly into the regional conflict after Hezbollah launched attacks on Israel following US and Israeli strikes that killed Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, widening a war that has increasingly involved multiple Iranian-backed groups across the region.
A humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Lebanon with over 850,000 – one in seven of the population - displaced since the outbreak of war in the region two weeks ago and a year since the last conflict uprooted over a million Lebanese from their homes.
The conflict between Hezbollah and Israel reignited on March 2 after it fired rockets on Israel provoking a harsh counter reaction. Most Lebanese were hoping Hezbollah would not respond to the attack on Iran. The government is using Lebanon’s largest sports stadium as a makeshift shelter to house the increasing numbers without accommodation.
The Israeli army has killed 103 children, and wounded 326 more kids, in Lebanon in the past 11 days. Israel killed 773 people overall, and wounded 1,933, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
Israel has invaded southern Lebanon on multiple occasions in the past:
1919: Chaim Weizmann: "the Litani was 'essential to the future of the Jewish national home'."
1941: Ben-Gurion & Moshe Dayan advocated Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon up to the Litani.
1948: During the war, Ben-Gurion thought the Litani should be Israel's northern border; Israel occupied Lebanese territory, withdrew to Ras al-Naqura line due to diplomatic pressure.
1950s: Prime Minister Moshe Sharett wrote in his diary that Moshe Dayan's plan for the control of the Litani River was to "'enter Lebanon … the territory south of the Litani will be annexed to Israel.'"
1978: the Israeli army invaded south Lebanon up to the Litani River. A UN resolution forced withdrawal back to the border.
1982: Israel re-invades Lebanon, occupies the territory south of the Litani River, besieges Beirut, slaughtering thousands of civilians. Facilitated Sabra and Shatila massacres
1982-2000: Israel occupies southern Lebanon south of the Litani River, giving rise to Hezbollah, founded in 1982 in response to the Israeli invasion and belligerent military occupation of Lebanon.
2006: Israel re-invaded Lebanon again, but suffered heavy losses m, failing to re-occupy it.
2024-present: On 1 October 2024, Israel invaded Southern Lebanon again, tried to occupy the south, but couldn't advance very far due to heavy resistance, so instead bombs & terrorizes the country on a daily basis since.
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