Since the start of the intensified Israeli bombing of Lebanon on 2 March, following the broader US‑Israel war on Iran that began on 28 February, Israeli strikes have devastated towns and villages across the country and heavily damaged civilian infrastructure, including bridges, roads, hospitals, and schools, particularly in Beirut’s southern suburbs and in southern and eastern Lebanon.
The Israeli strikes have killed 1,039 people and injured more than 2,876 others, and forced over a million people from their homes.
On Sunday, the health ministry reported that Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon killed four Lebanese citizens and wounded seven others. An Israeli strike killed three and wounded three in a raid on the town of Sultaniyah in the Bint Jbeil district, while a separate strike on the town of Sowana in the Marjayoun district killed one and injured four.
In the south, Israeli air and artillery strikes have hammered Jahmor al Shaqif, Kfar Tibnit, and Nabatieh al Fawqa, Naqoura, Bint Jbeil, Ainata, Khiam, and Hanine, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
Israel has also targeted key infrastructure in southern Lebanon, including the Qasmiyeh Bridge over the Litani River, a major crossing linking the south with central Lebanon. Israeli strikes hit two more crossings on the Litani River on Monday, including a road running near the main bridge struck on Sunday and another smaller bridge on another section of the river, according to Reuters.
Desperate for food
Hanna Amil, the mayor of the Christian border town Rmeish, whose residents have refused to leave their homes, told Reuters that movement had become increasingly difficult. "Once or twice a week, a convoy from the Lebanese army accompanies us as we try to get basic goods from nearby areas," he said. "Already, we have no state electricity, no water and we have diesel shortages. If all the routes to the north get cut off, who knows what the future could hold for us," Amil added.
Earlier on Sunday, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned Israeli strikes on bridges and other infrastructure in southern Lebanon, calling the targeting of bridges over the Litani River “a prelude to a ground invasion” and warning that such actions represent “a dangerous escalation and a threat to Lebanon’s sovereignty.”
A presidential statement said Aoun “condemned Israel’s targeting and destruction of infrastructure and vital facilities in southern Lebanon, particularly the Qasmiyeh Bridge over the Litani River and other bridges,” describing the attacks as “collective punishment” of the Lebanese people. He added that these actions were “a dangerous escalation and flagrant violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty.”
Fierce battles
In a statement carried by Hezbollah‑affiliated media, the Lebanese group said it targeted Israeli military sites, troop gatherings, and strategic installations across Israel in response to Israeli attacks on Lebanese areas, including the southern suburbs of Beirut in Dahiyeh.
The statement described these strikes -- dubbed Operation Eaten Straw -- against Israeli forces as “precise and coordinated,” carried out to “defend Lebanese territory and civilians.”
As part of the operation, Hezbollah reported that its fighters launched sustained attacks beginning Saturday evening, repeatedly striking “gatherings of Israeli soldiers and vehicles” across southern Lebanon -- particularly around the Khiam and Taybeh axis -- as well as along the border and inside northern Israel, using “rocket barrages, artillery fire, and attack drones.”
The group added that it has continued targeting Israeli positions in southern and northern Israel with “drone swarms” and “qualitative” rockets.
Ceasefire and ban
Before the most recent escalation on 2 March, Tel Aviv had never honoured the November 2024 ceasefire with Beirut, continuing daily airstrikes that killed at least 500 and wounded hundreds more, and refusing to withdraw troops from five southern areas, even though Hezbollah had pulled its fighters and military equipment north of the Litani River in line with the truce.
On 3 March, the Lebanese government banned all Hezbollah military activities after the group launched three rockets at Israel on 2 March in response to the US‑Israeli assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the highest spiritual leader of Shia Muslims.
The government accused Hezbollah of acting irresponsibly by firing rockets at Israel and dragging Lebanon into the wider conflict in the region, thus risking the destruction of the country's infrastructure at the hands of the Israelis as they threatened to do.
Despite the ban, Hezbollah, which had refused to implement a Lebanese government order to disarm, mobilized its soldiers to the south to fight against the advancing Israeli troops immediately after the start of their incursion.
In the past three weeks, Hezbollah has also coordinated with its ally Iran to plan and carry out joint missile and drone attacks on Israeli military targets and settlements in northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights in Syria.
On Thursday, during one such coordinated attack, an Iranian missile strike targeted the Haifa oil refineries, causing localized damage and brief power outages in northern Israel.
Hezbollah rockets and Iranian missiles have disrupted daily life in northern Israeli towns, with residents reporting intermittent blackouts, traffic disruptions, and heightened security alerts across the region.
The Israeli occupation army has admitted that two soldiers were killed in heavy fighting with Hezbollah since the start of the heavy bombing and attempts at ground invasion on 2 March.
Israeli casualties are withheld from the public during wartime, in line with military censor practices that often restrict reporting to prevent public panic.
'Greater Israel'
All this comes as Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for Israel to extend its border with Lebanon up to the Litani River, deep inside the country’s south.
Smotrich said, “I say here definitively… in every room and in every discussion, too: the new Israeli border must be the Litani,” as Israeli politicians continue to publicly tout their dream of creating a “Greater Israel.”
In tandem, Israeli politicians have made it clear that they will continue the confrontation with Hezbollah to destroy the group after the war against Iran comes to an end.
Israel previously occupied southern Lebanon from 1978 to 2000, but was forced to withdraw after sustained resistance from Hezbollah and other Lebanese resistance fighters.
The two sides fought two more major wars: one in 2006, which ended with the withdrawal of invading Israeli troops under UN Resolution 1701, and a second in September 2024, at the height of the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza, which concluded with a US‑brokered ceasefire on 27 November 2024.
The face-to-face battles between the Israeli occupation army and Hezbollah have raged for the past three weeks, with various observers suggesting that the Israeli army was not able to advance past the first line of villages in the south due to heavy resistance and despite heavy bombardment.
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