{"id":36902,"date":"2026-03-26T10:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T10:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/36902\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T10:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T10:38:10","slug":"lebanon-fears-another-occupation-as-israel-threatens-to-use-gaza-tactics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/36902\/","title":{"rendered":"Lebanon fears another occupation as Israel threatens to use Gaza tactics"},"content":{"rendered":"

BEIRUT (AP) \u2014 As Israel trades fire with Hezbollah, calls for mass evacuations and sends ground troops deeper into Lebanon<\/a>, its leaders have hinted at a long-term occupation modeled on the devastating conquest of much of Gaza<\/a> after Hamas\u2019 Oct. 7, 2023, attack.<\/p>\n

Israel says it needs to establish a zone of control in the depopulated south to shield its own northern communities, which have faced daily rocket attacks<\/a> since the Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group joined the wider war<\/a>. Many in Lebanon fear that could mean the open-ended displacement of over a million people<\/a>, the flattening of their homes and a loss of territory.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s Defense Minister Israel Katz said this week that it would create a \u201csecurity zone\u201d up to the Litani River, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border in some places. He said troops would destroy homes, which he claimed were being used by militants, and that residents would not return until northern Israel is safe.<\/p>\n

The campaign would mirror the one in Gaza, in which Israeli forces flattened and largely depopulated the eastern half of the Palestinian territory<\/a>, Katz said on Tuesday. Israel has said it won\u2019t withdraw from the enclave until Hamas disarms as part of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have ordered an acceleration in the destruction of Lebanese homes in contact-line villages to neutralize threats to Israeli communities, in accordance with the model of Beit Hanoun and Rafah in Gaza,\u201d Katz said, referring to border towns that were largely obliterated<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

From one war to the next<\/p>\n

After a 2024 ceasefire halted Israel\u2019s last war with Hezbollah, Israeli forces gradually withdrew from southern Lebanon except for five strategic hilltops along the border.<\/p>\n

Lebanese returned to find that homes, infrastructure, and some entire villages<\/a> destroyed. Israel said it had dismantled Hezbollah infrastructure that could have been used to launch an Oct. 7-style attack, and it continued to strike what it said were militant targets on a near-daily basis after the truce.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah resumed it attacks after Israel and the United States launched the war with Iran on Feb. 28, accusing Israel of having repeatedly violated the ceasefire. Israel accused Lebanon\u2019s government of failing to carry out its pledge to disarm Hezbollah, despite its unprecedented steps toward criminalizing the group.<\/p>\n

In the latest fighting, Israel has launched blistering air raids across Lebanon, killing more than 1,000 people \u2014 mostly outside of the border area \u2014 and displacing over a million. It has warned residents to evacuate a wide swath of the south, extending from the border to the Zahrani River, some 55 kilometers (34 miles) away.<\/p>\n

The Israeli military says it has launched a limited ground operation. Political leaders speak of more ambitious plans.<\/p>\n

Bezalel Smotrich, Israel\u2019s far-right finance minister and a member of its Security Cabinet, said this week that the current war must end with \u201cfundamental change.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Litani must be our new border with the state of Lebanon,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Echoes of an earlier occupation<\/p>\n

Israel invaded southern Lebanon in 1982 during the country\u2019s civil war. Hezbollah, established that year, waged a guerrilla campaign that eventually ended the Israeli occupation in 2000.<\/p>\n

This time around, Israel has bombed seven bridges over the Litani, the northern edge of a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone established after previous conflicts. Israel says Hezbollah was using the bridges to move fighters and weapons, and that its military will control the remaining crossings.<\/p>\n

Heavy fighting has meanwhile erupted in the town of Khiam, the fall of which would cut off the south from Lebanon\u2019s eastern Bekaa Valley, another area with a large Hezbollah presence.<\/p>\n

After the bridges were bombed, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun accused Israel of seeking to sever the south from the rest of the country \u201cto establish a buffer zone, entrench the reality of occupation, and pursue Israeli expansion within Lebanese territories.\u201d <\/p>\n

U.N. peacekeepers say the bombing of the bridges and ongoing clashes have hindered their operations and put personnel at risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the closest fighting activity we have seen to our positions,\u201d said Kandice Ardel, spokesperson for the U.N. mission known as UNIFIL. \u201cBullets, fragments, and shrapnel have hit buildings and open areas inside our headquarters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ardel said peacekeepers at observation points have seen a growing presence of Israeli troops and \u201cengineering assets,\u201d though they have not seen any new military positions built yet.<\/p>\n

\u2018Different shades\u2019 of control<\/p>\n

Mohanad Hage Ali, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East think tank in Beirut, said Israel has already established \u201cdifferent shades\u201d of control.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first line of borders is a no-man zone. This is basically a large parking lot that is facing Israel,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is nothing there, no movement, nothing at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lebanese movement is restricted farther north. During last year\u2019s olive harvest, farmers struggled to reach their groves because of regular Israeli strikes and had to be accompanied by Lebanese troops and UNIFIL peacekeepers, who coordinated with Israel.<\/p>\n

Sarit Zehavi, the founder and president of the Alma Institute and a retired Israeli military officer, said Israel will likely establish a more extensive area of control stretching farther north.<\/p>\n

She acknowledged that Israel was unlikely to defeat Hezbollah and was at risk of having to maintain a long-term presence in southern Lebanon. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut the other alternative is to take the risk that we will be slaughtered. It\u2019s as simple as that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

No diplomatic offramp in sight<\/p>\n

Lebanon\u2019s government has broken a longstanding taboo by proposing direct talks with Israel<\/a>. It has also taken action against Hezbollah since the last war, criminalizing its activities and claiming to have dismantled hundreds of military positions.<\/p>\n

But neither the U.S. nor Israel has shown any interest in such talks as they focus on the wider war with Iran.<\/p>\n

If negotiations occur, Israel could demand major concessions in exchange for relinquishing territory taken by force \u2014 an updated version of the decades-old \u201cland for peace\u201d formula.<\/p>\n

Israel seized parts of Syria after the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad and is in talks with the new government<\/a> in Damascus about an updated security arrangement. In Gaza, it has vowed to keep half the territory until the militant Palestinian Hamas group lays down its arms, as each side has accused the other<\/a> of violating the truce reached in October.<\/p>\n

Lebanese who fled their homes are meanwhile in limbo \u2014 and some fear they may never return.<\/p>\n

Elias Konsol and his neighbors fled the Christian border village of Alma al-Shaab with UNIFIL\u2019s help. He was reunited with his mother, who cried in his arms, at a church near Beirut where funeral services were being held for a resident killed in an Israeli strike.<\/p>\n

Konsol said there were no weapons or Hezbollah fighters in his village, but it was forced to evacuate anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe no longer know our fate,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t know if we will see our homes and village again.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Frankel reported from Jerusalem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BEIRUT (AP) \u2014 As Israel trades fire with Hezbollah, calls for mass evacuations and sends ground troops deeper…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[719,2371,887,1412,16398,1509,3368,2254,197,1411,100,1829,34,196,37,199,849,93,49,324,463,16399,200,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-36902","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lebanon","8":"tag-2024-2025-mideast-wars","9":"tag-2024-2026-mideast-wars","10":"tag-bashar-assad","11":"tag-bezalel-smotrich","12":"tag-elias-konsol","13":"tag-evacuations","14":"tag-fires","15":"tag-gaza-strip","16":"tag-general-news","17":"tag-hamas","18":"tag-hezbollah","19":"tag-international-agreements","20":"tag-iran","21":"tag-iran-war","22":"tag-israel","23":"tag-israel-government","24":"tag-joseph-aoun","25":"tag-lebanon","26":"tag-middle-east","27":"tag-mideast-wars","28":"tag-religion","29":"tag-sarit-zehavi","30":"tag-war-and-unrest","31":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116295047953474597","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}