The story so far: As the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran enters its fourth week, another, perhaps more brutal, war is unfolding in the region. On March 16, Israel announced the launch of a ground offensive in Lebanon against Hezbollah. It has also carried out massive air strikes in southern Lebanon and the southern outskirts of Beirut, killing at least 1,000 people and displacing about a million. The ground offensive is concentrated in hilltop towns in southern Lebanon, where the Israel Defence Forces are facing stiff resistance from Hezbollah fighters.

Why did Israel launch the offensive?

On paper, a ceasefire had been reached between Hezbollah and Israel in November 2024. The ceasefire was reached after a month-long campaign aimed at weakening Hezbollah, a Shia militant group and political party in Lebanon that maintains close ties with Iran.

When Israel launched its invasion of Gaza after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, Hezbollah fired rockets into the Shebaa Farms, a Lebanese territory occupied by Israel. Israel responded with air strikes, triggering further Hezbollah rocket attacks that displaced thousands of Israelis from the Upper Galilee region.

In September 2024, Israel assassinated Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in an air strike. The Israeli plan was to disrupt Hezbollah’s command structure before launching a ground offensive. During the ground battle, Israel pushed Hezbollah fighters away from the border and occupied strategically important regions in southern Lebanon. In November that year, Israel agreed to a ceasefire, but it continued air strikes nearly every day in Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah positions. Hezbollah hardly retaliated.

On February 2026, after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed by a joint Israeli-American air strike, Hezbollah fired hundreds of rockets into northern Israel. Israel retaliated with air strikes, which was followed by the ground offensive.

What is Hezbollah?

Over the past five decades, Israel has carried out multiple attacks in Lebanon. In 1978, Israel launched an incursion into southern Lebanon to push the Palestinian militias based in the region, under the umbrella of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), to the north of the Litani River. In 1982, Israel launched another invasion with the same objective. It managed to force the PLO to relocate from Lebanon, but the consequences of the war led to the rise of Hezbollah as a militant Shia organisation. Iran, where the Shia clergy established an Islamic government in 1979, backed Hezbollah.

When Israeli troops stayed in southern Lebanon to keep a buffer on the Lebanese side of the border, Hezbollah emerged as the major resistance force. Israeli troops, faced with Hezbollah’s guerrilla attacks, were forced to withdraw from Lebanon in 2000 — which was celebrated by Hezbollah as the first “Arab victory against Israel”.

In 2006, Israel attacked Lebanon again, to dismantle Hezbollah’s military infrastructure. After a month-long campaign, Israel had to agree to a ceasefire and pull back. This allowed Hezbollah to rise as a major socio-political and militant movement of Lebanon’s sectarian system, where the army is very weak. But Israel has always called Hezbollah — which it designates as a terrorist outfit alongside the U.S. and their Western partners — an “Iranian proxy”. There was an uneasy calm along the Israel-Lebanon border after the 2006 war, but it was broken by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.

How strong is Hezbollah today?

Hezbollah, because of its long resistance history and battlefield experience, is generally seen as a powerful fighting force. After the 2006 war, they joined the Syrian civil war to fight alongside the forces of President Bashar al-Assad. Hezbollah’s involvement played a crucial role in turning around the civil war from 2015 to 2018.

Hezbollah, a state within the state in Lebanon, possesses tens of thousands of rockets and missiles. However, in September 2024, Israel’s pager explosions, which targeted Hezbollah’s mid-level commanders, and killed the group’s top leadership, threw it into disarray. Around that time, Abu Mohammed al-Golani, a former al-Qaeda jihadist who was running Syria’s Idlib, started a campaign to take over Damascus. The Syrian Army, which was targeted by hundreds of Israeli air strikes, was in a bad shape. Syria’s three main supporters were Iran, Russia, and Hezbollah. Russia was busy with Ukraine. And Iran’s space for manoeuvre was limited. Hezbollah was pushed back by Israeli attacks. It took only 12 days for Golani’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s Syria branch) to capture Damascus.

The fall of Assad’s government in December cut a vital link between Hezbollah and Iran, which further weakened both sides. From the early 1980s, Iran had provided money, weapons and training to Hezbollah, and Baathist Syria acted as a land bridge between Iran and Syria (through Iraq, at least since 2003). In subsequent months, Israel continued to pound Hezbollah and the group hardly retaliated. But Hezbollah was also using this period to rebuild its command structure and replenish its arsenals, preparing for an eventual war. And when Israel and the U.S. killed Khamenei in February 2026, they joined the war, drawing in thousands of troops into Lebanon.

What does Israel want to achieve?

Israel has declared that it wants to dismantle Hezbollah’s military capabilities, push them away from southern Lebanon, and create a buffer inside the Lebanese territory. Israel has issued evacuation orders for the whole of southern Lebanon and some neighbourhoods in the north of the Litani River. It has bombed some bridges on the river to cut off supplies for Hezbollah. Israel is also pressing the Lebanese government to take action to disarm Hezbollah.

Hezbollah’s version is that it is defending Lebanese territory. It has fired more than 1,000 rockets and drones at Israel since March 2, in a clear message that it still possesses attack capabilities. Israel is also facing stiff resistance in the hilltop towns of southern Lebanon, particularly in Khiam, a high plateau overlooking the Hula Valley in the south. While Israel seeks to push Hezbollah out militarily, an approach it tried several times in the past and failed, Hezbollah, though weakened by regional developments, is resisting with asymmetrical tactics. It is the Lebanese people who are caught in the middle.

Published – March 22, 2026 03:26 am IST

Washington:

The United States on Wednesday said Israel must avoid any Gaza-like military action in Lebanon after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned it risked “destruction” like that in the Palestinian territory.

“There should be no kind of military action in Lebanon that looks anything like Gaza and leaves a result anything like Gaza,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told journalists.

But Israeli armed forces chief Herzi Halevi vowed it would keep up the intensive bombing of Hezbollah targets that has already killed more than 1,200 people since September 23, “without allowing them any respite or recovery”.

In a phone call on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden told Netanyahu to “minimise harm” to civilians in Lebanon, particularly in “densely populated areas of Beirut”, the White House said.

It added the two leaders had agreed to stay in “close contact” over the coming days.

Netanyahu said in a video address to the people of Lebanon on Tuesday: “You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza.”

He added: “Free your country from Hezbollah so that this war can end.”

– Iran conflict concerns –

A Lebanese government source told AFP that Hezbollah had accepted a ceasefire with Israel on September 27, the day an Israeli strike killed the Iran-backed militant group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah.

But they said Israel’s response had torpedoed the ceasefire plan, backed by Washington and its allies, and the Lebanese government had “had no contact with Hezbollah” since his death.

Biden and Netanyahu’s call had been expected to focus on Israel’s response to last week’s missile barrage by Iran.

Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said: “Our attack on Iran will be deadly, precise and surprising.”

Iran fired some 200 missiles at Israel in what it said was retaliation for the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Most were intercepted by allied air forces or Israel’s own air defences.

Biden has cautioned Israel against attempting to target Iran’s nuclear programme, which would risk major retaliation, and is also against striking the country’s oil installations, which would send world crude prices spiking.

– Hezbollah rockets, Israeli strikes –

Hezbollah said its fighters were locked in clashes with Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, using rocket-propelled weapons to repel Israeli attempts to breach the border.

Two people were killed by suspected Hezbollah rocket fire in the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona, while Israeli air defences also intercepted two projectiles fired towards the coastal town of Caesarea, officials said.

Lebanon’s health ministry said at least four people were killed in an Israeli strike on a village in the Shouf district, southeast of Beirut, a region so far largely spared by Israel’s intensified bombing campaign.

Lebanon’s state civil defence body later said an Israeli strike killed five of its personnel in the southern village of Derdghaiya.

Israel has intensified air strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon since September 23, forcing more than a million people to flee, according to an AFP tally of official figures.

Its ground forces crossed into Lebanon on September 30 in response to Hezbollah rocket and artillery attacks over the past year that have forced tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes in border areas.

Israel’s military said on Wednesday that its troops had “eliminated terrorists during close-quarter encounters and in aerial strikes” over the previous 24 hours, adding that “100 Hezbollah terror targets were destroyed”.

Israeli operations have expanded from border areas in the interior to the southern section of Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast.

According to a new toll from the Israeli army on Wednesday 13 of its soldiers have died since ground operations inside Lebanon began.

Israel’s air force also said on Wednesday it had killed a Hezbollah member named Adham Jahout in Syria.

– Civilians trapped in north Gaza –

Israel was also extending an ongoing military operation around Jabalia in the north of Gaza, where around 400,000 people are trapped, according to Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

Posting on X, Lazzarini said there was “no end to hell” in the area and that “recent evacuation orders from the Israeli authorities are forcing people to flee again & again”.

The army surrounded the town of Jabalia and its refugee camp at the weekend and was shelling it on Wednesday, preventing the delivery of aid, the Palestinian territory’s civil defence agency said.

Washington said it was “incredibly concerned” about the humanitarian situation in north Gaza as Israel tightens its siege, adding that it had been “the subject of some very urgent discussions between our two governments”.

“We have been making clear to the government of Israel that they have an obligation under international humanitarian law to allow food and water and other needed humanitarian assistance to make it into all parts of Gaza,” State Department spokesman Miller told journalists.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 42,010 people in Gaza, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry which the United Nations has described as reliable.

– Displaced in Beirut –

Israeli police said at least six people were wounded Wednesday, some of them seriously, in a stabbing rampage at four locations in the central Israeli town of Hadera.

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli border police killed at least four Palestinians in the northern city of Nablus, Palestinian health authorities and Israeli security forces said.

In Beirut, many people are sleeping out in the streets after Israeli air strikes and dozens of displaced families were seen on Beirut’s seafront on Wednesday.

Ahmad, a 77-year-old Beirut resident who did not want to give his second name for fear of reprisals, said he had a message for Hezbollah.

“If you can’t continue to fight, announce you are withdrawing and that you have lost. There is no shame in losing,” he said.

But Raed Ayyash, a displaced man from the south of the country, said he hoped Hezbollah would keep fighting.

“We hope for victory and we will never give up,” he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Smoke billows over Beirut southern suburbs after a strike, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Sin El Fil, Lebanon October 8, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Israeli forces have killed the would-be successors of late Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday, without naming them.

“We have degraded Hezbollah’s capabilities. We took out thousands of terrorists, including Nasrallah himself and Nasrallah’s replacement, and the replacement of the replacement,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a pre-recorded video message.

Mr. Netanyahu did not identify by name Nasrallah’s replacement that he claimed Israel had killed.

A Hezbollah official said on Sunday that Israel was obstructing search and rescue efforts in an area where Nasrallah’s potential successor Hashem Safieddine is thought to have been when Israel bombed Beirut’s southern suburbs on Thursday.

Israel killed Nasrallah in a September air strike on Beirut.

Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Nasrallah’s replacement had probably been “eliminated”.

It was not immediately clear who Netanyahu meant in his comments by the “replacement of the replacement”.

“Today, Hezbollah is weaker than it has been for many, many years,” Mr. Netanyahu said in his video message, which was directed at the people of Lebanon.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel last Oct. 8, a day after Hamas Palestinian militants attacked southern Israel from Gaza. Hezbollah cited solidarity with Hamas.

Some 60,000 Israeli citizens in the country’s north have been forced to leave their homes, while Israel’s stated objective is to make its northern areas safe from Hezbollah rocket fire and allow those displaced residents to return.

“Israel has a right to defend itself. Israel also has a right to win. And Israel will win,” Netanyahu said.

He urged Lebanon to “take back your country” and return it to a path of peace and prosperity and take advantage of an opportunity that hasn’t existed in decades.

“If you don’t, Hezbollah will continue to try to fight Israel from densely populated areas at your expense. It doesn’t care if Lebanon is dragged into a wider war,” he added. “Christians, Druze, Muslims — Sunnis and Shiites — all of you are suffering because of Hezbollah’s futile war against Israel.

“Don’t let these terrorists destroy your future any more than they’ve already done,” Netanyahu added. “You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza. It doesn’t have to be that way.”

An aircraft of Middle East Airlines (MEA), Lebanon’s flag carrier, takes off from Beirut International Airport on October 6, 2024 amidst smoke rising from nearby sites targeted overnight by Israeli air strikes in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital.
| Photo Credit: AFP

The United States warned Israel on Monday (October 7, 2024) not to attack Beirut airport or the roads leading to it, as the Israeli Army carried out intensive strikes against Hezbollah in the Lebanese capital’s southern suburbs.

“We think it’s very important that not only the airport be open, but that the roads to the airport be open, so that American citizens who want to leave can get out, but also citizens of other countries,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

The Israeli air force carried out a strike on Monday in the southern suburbs of Beirut, near the international airport, a security source told AFP.

For the past week, the United States has been chartering near-daily flights to get its citizens and their families out of the country as the conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah escalates.

Some 900 people have taken the flights so far, Miller said, though he added that none of them were fully booked.

The U.S. is also reserving seats on commercial flights that continue to operate.

Some 8,500 Americans have contacted the State Department to inquire about departure conditions, but this does not mean they all wish to leave, he added.

The spokesman also refused to comment on Israeli strikes in Lebanon — and Beirut in particular — and whether or not they respected international law.

“I don’t have a characterization of them one way or the other,” he said.

“But of course, we expect them to target Hezbollah in a way that complies with international humanitarian law and minimizes civilian casualties.”

The United States has at times criticized the number of people killed by Israel in Gaza — more than 41,000 over the past year — and President Joe Biden has called some of Israel’s actions there “over the top.”

But, so far, Washington hasn’t changed its policy of backing Israel in its expanding military operations.

Israel launched a vast military campaign in response to a bloody attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023.

In recent weeks it has expanded its war from the Gaza Strip, where Hamas is based, to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The U.S. supports Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah, Miller said.

But, he added, “we are very cognizant of the many times in the past where Israel has gone in on what looked like limited operations and has stayed for months or for years.

“And ultimately, that’s not the outcome that we want to see.”

Moscow:

Russia accused Israel on Tuesday of violating international law after it struck a Hezbollah stronghold in the Lebanese capital Beirut.

“This is a gross violation of international law,” Russia’s foreign ministry told state news agencies. Israel said the strike targeted a commander responsible for a Saturday rocket attack on the annexed Golan Heights that killed 12 children.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)