Israel slowly crawls into south Lebanon amid stiff resistance and occupation fears
A month into Israel's war against Hezbollah, invading Israeli troops are gradually advancing in south Lebanon, raising fears for the area's fate following the last Israeli occupation that lasted nearly two decades.
Since war erupted last month, Israeli officials have said Israel intends to establish a "security zone" inside Lebanon.
More recently, Defense Minister Israel Katz said the military "will establish itself in a security zone inside Lebanon ... and will maintain security control over the entire area up to the Litani" river, around 30 kilometers from the border.
What is happening on the ground and how far could Israel go?
- What's happening in south Lebanon? -
The Israeli military previously issued unprecedented evacuation orders for swathes of the country's south.
An Israeli military source told AFP that four army divisions are currently deployed across the country's northern border.
A Western military source in south Lebanon said "the Israelis are advancing one axis at a time" and destroying border villages as they go.
The source told AFP on condition of anonymity that Israeli forces had taken the strategic town of Khiam, located along the eastern stretch of the shared border.
Hezbollah, which drew Lebanon into the Middle East war last month with rocket fire towards Israel, has been claiming repeated attacks on Israeli troops in south Lebanon, where Israel's military says 10 soldiers have been killed in combat.
The Iran-backed group is not halting Israeli troops' advance "but is seeking symbolic victories such as the destruction of Merkava tanks", the Western military source said.
In 1982, the Israeli army reached the outskirts of Beirut in just four days; Hezbollah emerged shortly thereafter to resist the occupation. Today, a month into a new ground invasion, Israeli troops remain bogged down in border clashes with Hezbollah fighters in areas such as Khiam, Taybeh, Naqoura, and Shamaa.
David Wood, senior Lebanon analyst at the International Crisis Group, told AFP that as Israel pushes further inside Lebanon, "it is entering a style of warfare that might actually suit Hezbollah better, in this sort of guerrilla hit-and-run style of fighting".
Lebanon's army has announced troop "repositioning and redeployment" in parts of the south where Israel is advancing.
A Lebanese military source said Israeli soldiers have advanced up to 10 kilometers in some places, and Lebanon's army, which has limited means, fears it will be targeted or encircled.
Israeli fire has killed one on-duty Lebanese soldier.
United Nations peacekeepers deployed in south Lebanon have been powerless to stop the fighting, with three of their troops also killed.
- What does Israel want? -
Katz has said Israel would control south Lebanon up to the Litani, and vowed that hundreds of thousands of south Lebanon residents will not return until northern Israel's security is guaranteed.
Lebanese Defense Minister Michel Menassa this week denounced "a clear intention to impose a new occupation of Lebanese territory".
U.N. aid chief Tom Fletcher has warned that south Lebanon could become another occupied territory in the Middle East.
But Eyal Zisser, a Lebanon expert at Tel Aviv University, cautioned against taking Katz's announcements at face value.
"He's good at making statements, but you always have to check first of all if it is in full agreement" with what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says, he told AFP's Jerusalem bureau.
Netanyahu has ordered troops to "further expand" a so-called security zone in south Lebanon "to definitively neutralize the threat of invasion (by Hezbollah militants) and to keep anti-tank missile fire away from the border".
Military analyst and retired Lebanese army general Khalil Helou told AFP that Hezbollah has "recruited people from southern towns" for decades, giving the group "local power" that Israel fears could be further exploited if southerners return.
- New occupation? -
Israel has previously tried to create a buffer zone in southern Lebanon.
Following a first invasion in 1978, Israeli troops returned four years later, entering Lebanon all the way to Beirut to drive out Palestinian militias.
Hezbollah was born in response to the 1982 invasion.
Israel withdrew gradually but kept an area up to 20 kilometers deep inside Lebanese territory until 2000, when it pulled out under persistent pressure from Hezbollah.
Lebanese are increasingly concerned about a return to a similar scenario.
In its last war with Hezbollah and even after a November 2024 ceasefire, Israeli troops damaged or destroyed swathes of border villages and towns through strikes, controlled demolitions and the wrecking of agricultural areas.
Zisser said Israel maintaining control of the area south of the Litani was technically feasible.
"But you need to make a decision and you need to decide how to do it, (whether) to occupy the entire territory and establish yourself there" or not, he said.
Wood meanwhile cautioned that an occupation would create "new security threats" for Israel.
"If Israel denies people the right to return to their ancestral homes, then armed resistance groups will emerge or will continue to take up this struggle," he said.
Source: Agence France Presse, Naharnet
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