Hezbollah and the Israeli military have entered a new phase of the conflict in southern Lebanon, marked by a sharp escalation in missile fire that began late Wednesday.
Israel responded by widening evacuation warnings in southern Lebanon to areas north of the Litani River and south of the Zahrani River, as Israeli ground operations over the past 10 days have consisted of limited incursions followed by withdrawals.
Israel also issued evacuation warnings in central Beirut, specifically in the Bashoura area adjacent to downtown Beirut, triggering major disruption in the capital.
The area is hosting tens of thousands of displaced people from southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs. The Israeli military enforced the warning by striking a building with two heavy air raids following two warning strikes.
Later, the Israeli military said Hezbollah had stored hundreds of millions of dollars beneath the targeted building and that armed guards were stationed there. It said access to the storage site was through the parking lot.
The military then issued another warning for a building dozens of meters away in the Zoqaq al-Blat area and struck it in an air raid.
The escalation reached a new level when a precision strike targeted the Lebanese University’s Faculty of Sciences, killing two professors inside the building.
In Israel, Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had instructed the Israeli military to “prepare to expand operations in Lebanon and restore calm and security to the northern communities.”
Katz said he warned Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun, that if the Lebanese government cannot control its territory and prevent Hezbollah from threatening the northern communities and firing rockets toward Israel, it will do so itself, and it will seize territory.
Hezbollah escalation
Hezbollah launched a heavy rocket barrage late Wednesday, with most of the projectiles fired from north of the Litani River toward Israel. The rockets targeted northern border settlements as well as military sites deeper inside Israel, according to Israeli media and Hezbollah.
More than 200 rockets were fired in successive barrages over nearly four hours, causing no deaths or injuries, according to Israeli authorities.
Hezbollah appeared to escalate after days of heavy Israeli bombardment targeting Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Lebanese sources monitoring Hezbollah said the decision to escalate “appears to have been taken after Israel announced it would not evacuate the northern settlements, so that displaced residents would not create pressure on it.”
The sources said Hezbollah was therefore trying to pressure Tel Aviv by forcing evacuations in northern Israel.
Northern Israel was expected to remain largely insulated from the fighting after Hezbollah vacated the area south of the Litani following the 2024 war, and after the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers cleared and destroyed Hezbollah rocket depots south of the river.
However, most of the rockets targeting northern Israel were launched from north of the Litani.
A Lebanese security source said 95% of the rockets fired at Israel during the latest escalation overnight Wednesday originated north of the Litani.
The Israeli military said Thursday that Hezbollah had launched “around 200 rockets and around 20 drones, in addition to ballistic missiles that were being launched from Iran at the same time,” describing it as the largest barrage Hezbollah has fired since the start of the war.
It vowed to respond forcefully, while Hezbollah rockets struck areas in Tel Aviv and Israeli military facilities in Haifa, Tiberias and Safed.
Evacuation warnings
Israel quickly responded Thursday by issuing what it described as the broadest evacuation warning since the war began, covering the area between north of the Litani River and south of the Zahrani River, extending to western Bekaa.
Avichay Adraee, the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson, said on X that residents should move north of the Zahrani River, which lies about 56 kilometers from the Israeli border at its midpoint.
The warning covers the Zahrani district and part of Nabatieh district, particularly the Iqlim al-Tuffah area, which is entirely included in the evacuation order, as well as villages in western Bekaa.
Local sources in southern Lebanon told Asharq Al-Awsat that the area north of the Litani came under very heavy air strikes overnight Wednesday-Thursday, with bombardment lasting for hours in villages where Hezbollah was launching rockets.
Ground battle
The shape of the ground battle remains unclear, with Israeli forces carrying out incursions inside Lebanese territory without establishing permanent positions.
A Lebanese security source told Asharq Al-Awsat that Israeli incursions have been taking place for 10 days, ranging from a few hundred meters to 3 kilometers inside Lebanon.
The source said the Israeli military “has not established any new military position inside Lebanese territory,” but instead enters areas and then withdraws.
According to the sources, incursions have occurred on several axes. In the east, they included the area south of Kfar Shouba, as well as the villages of Adaisseh, Markaba, Kfar Kila and south of Khiam, extending to the outskirts of Tall al-Nahas.
Other incursions took place farther south in Aitaroun, Yaroun, Maroun al-Ras and Qawzah.
The sources stressed that what is happening “is not an invasion, but incursions after which Israeli forces withdraw beyond the border.”
At the same time, Hezbollah said its fighters carried out large-scale missile and drone attacks targeting strategic military bases in the suburbs of Tel Aviv and elite training centers, as well as “pounding Zionist settlements and barracks with swarms of attack drones and precision rocket salvos.”
The death toll from Israeli strikes on Lebanon has risen to 687 since the war between Israel and Hezbollah began on March 2, 2026, Lebanese Information Minister Paul Morcos said. He added that the dead include “98 children and 52 women.”
