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Israel Strikes Hezbollah’s Civilian as Well as Military Wings in an Attempt to Crush the Group

Destroyed houses and buildings in southern Lebanon are seen across the border from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel on March 20, 2026. (AFP)
Destroyed houses and buildings in southern Lebanon are seen across the border from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel on March 20, 2026. (AFP)
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Israel Strikes Hezbollah’s Civilian as Well as Military Wings in an Attempt to Crush the Group

Destroyed houses and buildings in southern Lebanon are seen across the border from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel on March 20, 2026. (AFP)
Destroyed houses and buildings in southern Lebanon are seen across the border from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel on March 20, 2026. (AFP)

An Israeli strike on a health center in southern Lebanon instantly killed 12 medical workers, seriously wounded one and left four missing under the rubble for hours.

The March 13 strike in the village of Burj Qalaouiyah, one of the single deadliest strikes in Lebanon since the latest Israel-Hezbollah war began on March 2, targeted a center run by Hezbollah’s health arm, the Islamic Health Society, which has so far lost 24 members over the past two weeks.

Since the latest war began, Israel’s military has not only been targeting the group’s military assets but also its civilian institutions in an apparent attempt to weaken the Iran-backed group further and try to push its supporters away from it.

Hezbollah is a political party as well as an armed group, and its health and social service institutions have helped strengthen its base of support over the years.

In addition to health centers, Israel has destroyed more than a dozen branches of Hezbollah’s financial arm, al-Qard al-Hasan. Other strikes heavily damaged Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV headquarters and its Al-Nour radio stations.

The strikes also have targeted the group's Amana gas stations and discount shops known as Sajjad, where low-income people can buy highly subsidized products.

On Wednesday, an Israeli airstrike on an apartment in central Beirut killed Mohammed Sherri, the head of political programs at Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV, along with his wife.

Israel has accused Hezbollah of using health facilities for military purposes and has said al-Qard al-Hasan — officially a charitable organization that provides interest-free loans — finances the group's military activities. Lebanon's Health Ministry denies the Israeli claims about Hezbollah's health facilities being used for military purposes.

"This is a different war that will not end with a ceasefire," said Hilal Khashan, a political scientist at American University of Beirut. "This war will not end before Israel achieves its full objective - that is, the elimination of Hezbollah not only as a military movement, but also the ultimate objective is to erase Hezbollah from the Lebanese political picture."

Hezbollah is under internal and external pressure to disarm and knows this latest fight is crucial. Intense clashes along Lebanon's southern border between Hezbollah fighters and advancing Israeli troops have left dozens of Lebanese gunmen dead.

During a visit to the northern front Monday, Israel's army chief Gen. Eyal Zamir said that Hezbollah is now fighting "a war for its very existence and is paying a heavy price for entering this battle." He added that pressures exerted by Israel's military will only "increase more and more."

Hezbollah vows to keep fighting

"This is an existential battle. It is not a limited or simple battle," Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem said in a televised speech over the weekend. Qassem vowed that his group would fight to the end and never surrender.

Israel says that Lebanon has failed to disarm the group in accordance with the Lebanese government's own plans, and that therefore Israel will carry out the mission itself.

Unlike previous conflicts with Israel, the current one comes as the Lebanese government has called Hezbollah’s military activities illegal and authorities have detained several members of the group for carrying weapons without a license.

Like previous wars, Hezbollah is being criticized by its opponents in Lebanon who blame the Iran-backed group for triggering this war by firing rockets into Israel. Hezbollah fired the rockets to avenge the killing of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, less than two days after the US and Israel began their attacks on Iran, triggering a war in the Middle East.

Israel retaliated with a campaign of airstrikes on parts of Lebanon that has so far left more than 1,000 people dead and over 1 million displaced from their homes in southern and eastern Lebanon, as well as in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

"Hezbollah took a suicidal initiative that will not change the equation," said legislator Sami Gemayel, who heads the nationalist Kataeb Party, adding that Tehran is using Lebanon "as a platform to defend Iran."

A previous 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006 ended with a draw. A 14-month conflict that started in October 2023 — when Hezbollah fired rockets in support of Palestinians a day after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel — killed much of Hezbollah’s political and military command and left the group severely weakened but not destroyed.

Strikes followed by backlash

After airstrikes hit Hezbollah’s institutions even in central Beirut, residents protested and forced the group to close a branch of al-Qard al-Hasan in the heart of the capital. Bowing to the pressure, workers removed the financial institution's sign and dismantled ATMs, marking the end of its presence in central Beirut.

Amnesty International has said that the al-Qard al-Hasan branches are not legitimate military targets under international humanitarian law and that the strikes should be investigated as war crimes.

"The Israeli military has appeared to assume that labelling something as Hezbollah-affiliated, be that healthcare workers, homes in border villages, or financial institutions, makes it targetable. That’s wrong," said Heba Morayef, regional director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.

Mahmoud Karaki of Hezbollah’s Islamic Health Society said that during the last war in 2024, his group lost 153 members in Israeli attacks. But he vowed that the group would continue its work as it has done in previous wars.

"By targeting us, they are targeting the safety network for the people and their steadfastness in areas under attack," Karaki said

The Israeli military’s Arabic spokesperson alleged that Hezbollah is using ambulances to transport weapons and fighters, a charge that the paramedic group strongly denies.

Hezbollah and Iranian officials have said that any halt in US-Israeli strikes on Iran should also include a stop to Israeli attacks in Lebanon.

Senior Hezbollah official Mahmoud Qamati told Lebanon’s Al-Jadeed TV on Monday that "Iran will not leave Lebanon nor the resistance, nor will it allow that Lebanon remains vulnerable," adding that "Lebanon will be part of this victory and will not be left alone."

When Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was asked if Tehran could accept a ceasefire to stop strikes on Iran while they continue in Lebanon, he said: "I don't think so."

"We do not believe in a ceasefire; we believe in ending the war. And ending the war means exactly that — ending the war on all fronts," Araghchi told Al Jazeera English, adding that this includes Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, Iran and "other countries of the region."

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Arab World

Lebanon: Hezbollah Boycotts Cabinet Session over Iran Ambassador Expulsion

A previous session of the Lebanese Parliament (National News Agency)
A previous session of the Lebanese Parliament (National News Agency)
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Lebanon: Hezbollah Boycotts Cabinet Session over Iran Ambassador Expulsion

A previous session of the Lebanese Parliament (National News Agency)
A previous session of the Lebanese Parliament (National News Agency)

Ministers from Hezbollah and its ally Amal boycotted Lebanon's cabinet session on Thursday in protest over the government declaring the Iranian ambassador persona non grata, a Lebanese official told AFP.

The two Shiite parties have a combined four ministers, with one independent Shiite also represented in the cabinet present at the meeting, the official said, as the spat over the Iranian diplomat's expulsion escalated.

Hezbollah is an armed movement backed by Iran, which also has political representation in both government and parliament.

Arab World

Lebanese Fear Another Occupation as Israel Threatens to Use Gaza Tactics in the South

Israeli military vehicles maneuver on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 25 March 2026. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
Israeli military vehicles maneuver on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 25 March 2026. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
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Lebanese Fear Another Occupation as Israel Threatens to Use Gaza Tactics in the South

Israeli military vehicles maneuver on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 25 March 2026. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
Israeli military vehicles maneuver on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 25 March 2026. EPA/ATEF SAFADI

As Israel trades fire with Hezbollah, calls for mass evacuations and sends ground troops deeper into Lebanon, its leaders have hinted at a long-term occupation modeled on the devastating conquest of much of Gaza after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

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 since the Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group joined the wider war. Many in Lebanon fear that could mean the open-ended displacement of over a million people, the flattening of their homes and a loss of territory.

Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz said this week that it would create a “security zone” 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.

The campaign would mirror the one in Gaza, in which Israeli forces flattened and largely depopulated the eastern half of the Palestinian territory, Katz said on Tuesday. Israel has said it won't withdraw from the enclave until Hamas disarms as part of a US-brokered ceasefire deal.

“We 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,” Katz said, referring to border towns that were largely obliterated.

From one war to the next

After a 2024 ceasefire halted Israel's last war with Hezbollah, Israeli forces gradually withdrew from southern Lebanon except for five strategic hilltops along the border.

Lebanese returned to find that homes, infrastructure, and some entire villages 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.

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's government of failing to carry out its pledge to disarm Hezbollah, despite its unprecedented steps toward criminalizing the group.

In the latest fighting, Israel has launched blistering air raids across Lebanon, killing more than 1,000 people — mostly outside of the border area — 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.

The Israeli military says it has launched a limited ground operation. Political leaders speak of more ambitious plans.

Bezalel Smotrich, Israel's far-right finance minister and a member of its Security Cabinet, said this week that the current war must end with “fundamental change.”

“The Litani must be our new border with the state of Lebanon,” he said.

Echoes of an earlier occupation Israel invaded southern Lebanon in 1982 during the country's civil war. Hezbollah, established that year, waged a guerrilla campaign that eventually ended the Israeli occupation in 2000.

This time around, Israel has bombed seven bridges over the Litani, the northern edge of a UN-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.

Heavy fighting has meanwhile erupted in the town of Khiam, the fall of which would cut off the south from Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley, another area with a large Hezbollah presence.

After the bridges were bombed, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun accused Israel of seeking to sever the south from the rest of the country “to establish a buffer zone, entrench the reality of occupation, and pursue Israeli expansion within Lebanese territories.”

UN peacekeepers say the bombing of the bridges and ongoing clashes have hindered their operations and put personnel at risk.

“This is the closest fighting activity we have seen to our positions,” said Kandice Ardel, spokesperson for the UN mission known as UNIFIL. “Bullets, fragments, and shrapnel have hit buildings and open areas inside our headquarters.”

Ardel said peacekeepers at observation points have seen a growing presence of Israeli troops and “engineering assets,” though they have not seen any new military positions built yet.

‘Different shades’ of control

Mohanad Hage Ali, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East think tank in Beirut, said Israel has already established “different shades” of control.

“The first line of borders is a no-man zone. This is basically a large parking lot that is facing Israel,” he said. “There is nothing there, no movement, nothing at all.”

Lebanese movement is restricted farther north. During last year's 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.

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.

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

“But the other alternative is to take the risk that we will be slaughtered. It’s as simple as that,” she said.

No diplomatic offramp in sight

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

But neither the US nor Israel has shown any interest in such talks as they focus on the wider war with Iran.

If negotiations occur, Israel could demand major concessions in exchange for relinquishing territory taken by force — an updated version of the decades-old “land for peace” formula.

Israel seized parts of Syria after the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad and is in talks with the new government 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 of violating the truce reached in October.

Lebanese who fled their homes are meanwhile in limbo — and some fear they may never return.

Elias Konsol and his neighbors fled the Christian border village of Alma al-Shaab with UNIFIL's 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.

Konsol said there were no weapons or Hezbollah fighters in his village, but it was forced to evacuate anyway.

“We no longer know our fate,” he said. “We don’t know if we will see our homes and village again.”

Arab World

Lebanon: Hezbollah Claims Targeting 10 Israeli Merkava Tanks

Israeli tanks near the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in northern Israel, March 25, 2026. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
Israeli tanks near the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in northern Israel, March 25, 2026. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
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Lebanon: Hezbollah Claims Targeting 10 Israeli Merkava Tanks

Israeli tanks near the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in northern Israel, March 25, 2026. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
Israeli tanks near the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in northern Israel, March 25, 2026. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

Lebanon's Iran-aligned Hezbollah group said Thursday that it struck10 Israeli Merkava tanks in three southern towns along the border.

In a series of separate statements, Hezbollah said that its members targeted the advanced Israeli tanks with guided missiles in the towns of Deir Siryan, Debel, and Al-Qantara, and achieved confirmed hits.

Earlier, Hezbollah said it targeted the headquarters of the Israeli Ministry of War in the center of Tel Aviv, and the Dolphin barracks of the Military Intelligence Division north of Tel Aviv with a number of missiles.

The Israeli military said an Israeli soldier was killed in fighting in south Lebanon after the army announced it was conducting ground operations against Hezbollah.

"Staff sergeant Ori Greenberg, aged 21, from Petah Tikva, a soldier of the Reconnaissance unit, Golani Brigade, fell during combat in southern Lebanon," the military said.

In total, three Israeli soldiers have been killed in fighting in south Lebanon since Hezbollah drew the country into the Israel and US war on Iran by launching rocket attacks against Israel on March 2 to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Israel is responding by launching large-scale raids on Lebanon, while its forces have advanced into southern Lebanon.

After the Lebanese Presidency repeatedly announced its readiness to open direct negotiations with Israel in order to end the war, Hezbollah announced its refusal to negotiate "under fire."

Its Secretary-General, Naim Qassem, said Wednesday in a statement: "When negotiating with the Israeli enemy under fire is proposed, it is an imposition of surrender and a deprivation of all of Lebanon's capabilities."

He called on the government to "reverse its decision to criminalize resistance and the resistance fighters," after announcing a ban on the party's security and military activities, as part of a series of unprecedented measures it has taken since the outbreak of the war.