Israel to expand ground and air attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon

The Israeli military says plans for the expansion of ground and air attacks against the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah have been approved, amid fears in Lebanon that Israel is preparing a large-scale ground invasion of the country. Israel has intensified its campaign against Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militia and political party, after the group fired rockets into Israel earlier this month amid the war between the US and Israel against Iran. Since then, more than 1,000 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese health ministry, including at least 118 children and 40 health workers. More than a million people have been displaced, which could lead to a major humanitarian crisis. Israeli officials say the aim is to protect communities in northern Israel from Hezbollah attacks. On Sunday, the Israeli military said the chief of the general staff, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, had approved plans "to advance the targeted ground operations and strikes" against Hezbollah, and that this would be a "prolonged operation". This followed a statement by the defence minister, Israel Katz, who said Israeli forces had been instructed to destroy the crossings over the Litani river that were being used by Hezbollah to send reinforcements. An Israeli air strike then damaged the Qasmiye bridge on one of the main routes linking the south to central Lebanon, near the coastal city of Tyre. The river is about 30km (19 miles) from the Lebanon-Israel border, and the bridges are also used by civilians. In Lebanon, many worry that Israel is planning to isolate the south – the heartland of the Shia community and of Hezbollah – from the rest of the country ahead of an operation to occupy some areas and create a so-called buffer zone. Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun said the Israeli strikes were a "prelude to a ground invasion" amounting to a "policy of collective punishment against civilians", and that they could be part of "suspicious schemes" to pursue an expansion of Israel's presence in Lebanese territory. Katz also said Israeli forces had been ordered to demolish homes in Lebanese villages along the border to neutralise threats to Israeli communities. He said the method would follow the one used in the war against Hamas in Gaza, where the Israeli military destroyed buildings and forced the evacuation of areas to create security zones inside the territory. The war in Gaza was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken hostage. Israel's military campaign in response killed more than 71,000 people, according to Gaza's health ministry. And the Israeli military has continued to carry out attacks there despite a ceasefire that came into force five months ago. The latest escalation in the decades-long conflict between Hezbollah and Israel started when the group fired rockets into Israel in retaliation for the killing of the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and in response to near-daily Israeli attacks on Lebanon despite a ceasefire that had been agreed on November 2024. Lebanon's government has vowed to disarm Hezbollah, which was created in the 1980s in response to Israel's occupation of Lebanon during the 15-year Lebanese civil war. But, so far, the group has refused to discuss the future of its weapons. President Aoun, a former army chief, had ruled out using force, warning that this could exacerbate sectarian divisions and lead to violence.