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Israel said on Tuesday that it will occupy wide swathes of south Lebanon and destroy the homes along the border to prevent the return of some 600,000 residents, prompting concerns of long-term forced displacement.
Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, said that it will occupy the area under the Litani River, some 19 miles from the Israel-Lebanon border, as part of its so-called buffer zone inside southern Lebanon when fighting with Hezbollah ends.
“At the end of the operation, the IDF would control the area up to the Litani River, including the remaining Litani bridges, while eliminating Radwan forces that infiltrated the area and destroying all weapons there,” Katz said, referring to the elite unit of the pro-Iran Hezbollah group.
He added that all homes near the villages would be destroyed “in accordance with the Rafah and Beit Hanoun model in Gaza.” The Israeli military razed most homes and public infrastructure in both neighbourhoods of Gaza, reducing them to rubble.
Human Rights Watch has said that similar statements by Katz in the past week could amount to forced displacement and wanton destruction, which are both war crimes.
In an interview on Sunday with LBCI, Israeli military spokesperson Maj Doron Spielman said that “every home in southern Lebanon, the Shiite homes, are command centers”.
Israel launched a military campaign in Lebanon shortly after Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel on 2 March to avenge the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Israeli jets have bombed what it says are Hezbollah targets across the country while its troops conduct a ground invasion some 18 miles south of the Litani River.
The immediate goal of Israel’s invasion is to push Hezbollah back from the border with Israel in order to stop the ability of the group to fire rockets into communities in northern Israel.
On Sunday, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said that he has instructed the military to expand the so-called buffer zone within Lebanon, though he did not specify how far. Most of Hezbollah’s rocket fire into Israel has originated from north of the Litani River and it has large weapons caches in the vast Bekaa valley.
Israeli troops have advanced quickly through southern Lebanon, reaching the town of Bayada on Sunday, just 8km from the city of Tyre. During the previous war in 2024, Israeli troops did not reach Bayada until two days before the end of fighting. Israeli troops area also advancing closer to towns in the Nabatieh district, whose capture would give the Israeli military a high ground to control the Litani area.
Israel also carried out a wave of airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut on Tuesday.
The Lebanese army withdrew from its positions in the Christian-majority towns of Rmeish and Ain Ebl on Tuesday as Israeli troops advanced, over the protests of residents.
Despite being close to the Lebanese-Israeli border, the towns had previously been mostly spared from Israeli strikes. The Lebanese army had until now remained in those villages, organising convoys to get food and other supplies and facilitate the evacuation of residents that want to leave.
Ten Israeli soldiers have been killed by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, while two civilians in northern Israel were killed by Hezbollah rocket fire.
At least 1,268 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israel, according to Lebanon’s ministry of health.
Three peacekeepers in the Lebanese UN mission were killed on Sunday and Monday in separate incidents as fighting intensified. On Sunday, two Indonesian peacekeepers near Aadshit al-Qusayr in south Lebanon were severely injured in an explosion near their base, with one later dying of his injuries. On Monday, an explosion near a vehicle in Bani Hayyan killed two more Indonesian peacekeepers.
UNIFIL said it was investigating the attacks to determine what happened, and it did not say whether it was Israel or Hezbollah who was responsible for the attacks. The Israeli military also said it was investigating.
UN under-secretary-general for peace operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, condemned what he called “unacceptable incidents,” and said that “all acts that endanger the peacekeepers must stop”. The EU also condemned the attacks and the UN security council was set to hold an emergency session on Tuesday at the request of France over the matter.
In the 13-month-war, which ended in 2024, UNIFIL peacekeepers were targeted several times by the Israeli military and its bases were also struck by Hezbollah rocket fire.
More than one million people have been displaced by Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, over 80% of whom are outside of state shelters. Medical facilities and public infrastructure such as bridges, water treatment stations and power stations have been damaged and destroyed by Israeli attacks in south Lebanon.
If the south is permanently occupied and residents prevented from returning, analysts have warned of a looming social and political disaster in Lebanon, where most of the population lived in poverty even prior to the beginning of the current war.
