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Israel Orders Troops to Seize New Positions in Lebanon

Fires erupt from buildings damaged in an early morning Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs on March 3, 2026. (Photo by AFP)
Fires erupt from buildings damaged in an early morning Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs on March 3, 2026. (Photo by AFP)
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Israel Orders Troops to Seize New Positions in Lebanon

Fires erupt from buildings damaged in an early morning Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs on March 3, 2026. (Photo by AFP)
Fires erupt from buildings damaged in an early morning Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs on March 3, 2026. (Photo by AFP)

Israel on Tuesday ordered the military to take control of more positions in Lebanon, where the army pulled back some of its forces after Hezbollah attacked Israeli bases in support of its backer, Iran. 

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I have authorized Israeli forces to advance and take control of additional strategic positions in Lebanon in order to prevent attacks on Israeli border communities," Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement. 

In response, the Lebanese army has redeployed soldiers from several recently established border positions on Tuesday following the Israeli army's "escalation", a Lebanese military source told AFP. 

The troops "numbering in total eight to nine soldiers at each point, were redeployed to their bases because of the danger to their safety", the Lebanese military said. 

Lebanon was drawn into the regional war on Monday after an initial rocket attack on Israel by Hezbollah, which said it wanted to "avenge" the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei during the US-Israeli strikes. 

Israel promptly responded with large-scale strikes on Lebanon, where the government on Monday declared an immediate ban on Hezbollah's military activities. 

The Israeli military said on Monday it had killed the head of Hezbollah's intelligence services, Hussein Moukalled, in a strike in Beirut. 

On Tuesday, it announced the killing of another senior member it named as Reza Khazai in a strike in Beirut, saying he was responsible for overseeing Hezbollah's weapons build-up on behalf of Iran's elite Quds Force. 

The military did not identify his nationality. 

 

Smoke rises from a destroyed building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

'All options'

Hezbollah said it targeted on Tuesday three Israeli military bases in response to the Israeli strikes on the group's strongholds. 

Although Israel has maintained that it is not planning a full-scale ground invasion of Lebanon, the military has stated that "all options are on the table" to halt incoming rocket fire from Hezbollah. 

On Tuesday, Katz declared that troops had been ordered to seize additional locations inside Lebanon, though the military described these steps as "tactical measures" rather than a ground invasion. 

Israeli forces had previously entered Lebanon in September 2024 after nearly a year of cross-border exchanges initiated by Hezbollah in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas following the outbreak of the war in Gaza. 

Tens of thousands of residents on both sides of the border had been evacuated as fighting between the two intensified. 

The Israeli military has since said it did not plan to evacuate northern communities again, noting that it has reinforced troop deployments along the Lebanese border and strengthened air defences in the area. 

Under a November 2024 truce, only UN peacekeepers and the Lebanese army may bear arms south of the Litani river, which runs around 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border. 

Israel was supposed to withdraw all of its forces from Lebanon under a ceasefire agreed in November 2024 but has kept troops in five border areas it deems strategic, citing Hezbollah's refusal to surrender its own arms. 

Despite the ceasefire, Israel has conducted regular air strikes on Hezbollah positions in Lebanon. 

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Arab World

Israel Will Strike Hezbollah Until Group Disarmed, Vows Army Chief

A picture taken along the Israel-Lebanon border shows rockets being fired from southern Lebanon towards Israel on March 3, 2026. (AFP)
A picture taken along the Israel-Lebanon border shows rockets being fired from southern Lebanon towards Israel on March 3, 2026. (AFP)
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Israel Will Strike Hezbollah Until Group Disarmed, Vows Army Chief

A picture taken along the Israel-Lebanon border shows rockets being fired from southern Lebanon towards Israel on March 3, 2026. (AFP)
A picture taken along the Israel-Lebanon border shows rockets being fired from southern Lebanon towards Israel on March 3, 2026. (AFP)

Israel's military chief on Tuesday said his forces would keep attacking Hezbollah until the Iran-backed Lebanese group was disarmed, as the war in the Middle East raged for a fourth day.

"We are determined to eliminate the threat Hezbollah poses and will not stop until this organization is disarmed," Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir was quoted as saying in a military statement.

The latest round of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel started early Monday when Hezbollah launched rockets towards Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli attacks on Saturday.

Arab World

Sources to Asharq Al-Awsat: Iran Contacts with Hamas, Islamic Jihad Cut

Islamic Jihad leader Ziad al-Nakhalah (R) sits beside Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem and senior Iranian military officials during the funeral of late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in August 2024. (Reuters)
Islamic Jihad leader Ziad al-Nakhalah (R) sits beside Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem and senior Iranian military officials during the funeral of late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in August 2024. (Reuters)
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Sources to Asharq Al-Awsat: Iran Contacts with Hamas, Islamic Jihad Cut

Islamic Jihad leader Ziad al-Nakhalah (R) sits beside Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem and senior Iranian military officials during the funeral of late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in August 2024. (Reuters)
Islamic Jihad leader Ziad al-Nakhalah (R) sits beside Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem and senior Iranian military officials during the funeral of late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in August 2024. (Reuters)

Israeli-US operations targeting various Iranian military and security leaders have cut off communication between officials handling the Palestinian file in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and leaders at multiple levels within Palestinian factions, both inside and outside Gaza.

Asharq Al-Awsat has learned from informed Palestinian factional sources that contact with commanders in the IRGC - whether in the Quds Force or in branches directly linked to Palestinian groups, particularly Hamas and Islamic Jihad - has been severed since the first day of the Israeli-US attacks last Saturday.

According to those sources, it remains unclear whether the IRGC commanders in question have been assassinated or are implementing standard security measures, although some had maintained contact and relayed messages through various means during the 12-day war in June.

“Messages are usually transmitted through encrypted channels, either electronically or by other means. Since the start of this war, no messages have been received,” the sources revealed.

Officials overseeing the Palestinian file in the IRGC are primarily responsible for supporting the factions, financially and militarily. They maintain regular, direct communication with top political and military leaders, and at times with second-tier officials, in efforts to develop plans and scenarios for potential or unfolding events.

The same sources said Iran had appointed a successor to Saeed Izadi, known as Hajj Ramadan, who was responsible for the Palestinian file in the Quds Force and was assassinated by Israel last June.

Two deputies were also assigned to the new commander to oversee the file in case he was killed. However, none of them have communicated with officials from Palestinian factions funded by Tehran during this period.

Deep crisis

Palestinian factions, particularly the Islamic Jihad and smaller groups such as the Popular Resistance Committees, the Mujahideen Brigades and some armed groups active in Gaza, have been facing a severe financial crisis for several months due to a sharp decline in Iranian support for more than seven months, Asharq Al-Awsat previously reported.

Before the Israeli-US strikes, leadership sources within those factions voiced concern over the potential impact, expressing fears of “the collapse of the Iranian regime, which would mean an irreversible halt to support.”

While Hamas relies on multiple funding sources, Islamic Jihad and other factions depend solely on Iranian backing. The downturn has affected salary payments to their members, raising fears of significant damage and even the potential collapse of some groups.

In a related development, sources within the Islamic Jihad told Asharq Al-Awsat that Adham al-Othman, commander of the Al-Quds Brigades, the movement’s armed wing in Lebanon, who was assassinated by Israel on Monday in Beirut’s southern suburbs, had been staying in an apartment belonging to Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

The apartment was considered a “safe location” and was secured by the party. He was killed alongside several individuals, some of whom were Hezbollah security personnel.

It remains unclear whether Israel had precise intelligence on Othman’s presence at the site or targeted it on the basis of its affiliation with Hezbollah, particularly as the Israeli military announced his killing only after a significant delay, hours after the Islamic Jihad had issued a statement mourning him.

Islamic Jihad members had taken part in attacks alongside Hezbollah along the border with Israel during what was known as the “support war”, which was launched by the party in October 2023 and ended with a ceasefire in November 2024. Some of those mourned by the group had moved to Beirut from Syria.

Arab World

Israel Strikes Jamaa Islamiya Group’s HQ in Sidon, South Lebanon

Rescue workers gather in front of the destroyed center of the Jamaa Islamiya group which hit by an Israeli strike, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday, March, 3, 2026. (AP)
Rescue workers gather in front of the destroyed center of the Jamaa Islamiya group which hit by an Israeli strike, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday, March, 3, 2026. (AP)
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Israel Strikes Jamaa Islamiya Group’s HQ in Sidon, South Lebanon

Rescue workers gather in front of the destroyed center of the Jamaa Islamiya group which hit by an Israeli strike, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday, March, 3, 2026. (AP)
Rescue workers gather in front of the destroyed center of the Jamaa Islamiya group which hit by an Israeli strike, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday, March, 3, 2026. (AP)

Beirut, Lebanon, March 3, 2026 (AFP) - Israel struck a headquarters belonging to the Jamaa Islamiya group, an ally of Hamas and Hezbollah, in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon on Tuesday, state media reported.

"The Israeli enemy carried out an air raid a short while ago, targeting a headquarters of the Jamaa Islamiya" in the coastal city, state media said.

Sidon was largely spared of major Israeli attacks during the last war between Israel and Hezbollah, which a November 2024 ceasefire sought to end.

The strike almost entirely destroyed a seven-storey building, according to an AFP photographer, and ambulances rushed to the scene.

It caused a powerful blast in a densely populated area, as seen on local media.

The Jamaa Islamiya in a statement said no one was killed or wounded in the strike, which it called a "war crime".

The Israeli military then issued an evacuation warning for another building in Sidon, saying it will hit "Hezbollah military infrastructure... in light of its prohibited attempts to rebuild its activities in the area".

The Jamaa Islamiya had previously been the target of Israeli strikes in Lebanon after claiming responsibility for rocket launches towards Israel during the war between Israel and Hezbollah that began in October 2023.

Last month, it accused Israel of seizing one of its officials from a town near the border.

The Israeli military said that it "apprehended a senior terrorist" in the group who was then "transferred for further questioning in Israeli territory".