Israel sharply escalated its military campaign in Lebanon on Friday, carrying out air strikes north of the Litani River in southern Lebanon, including the Zahrani district about 40 km from the border, for the first time since civilian negotiations between the neighbors began two weeks ago, amid mounting Israeli threats of a wider war against Hezbollah.
A series of intense air strikes hit scattered areas across four districts, Nabatieh, Jezzine, Zahrani and the western Bekaa, reinforcing a pressure by fire equation as the framework governing the current negotiating track, even as diplomatic activity intensifies to avert a wider war.
Air strikes
After no reported pursuit of Hezbollah members in the south since the start of the month, Israeli strikes on Friday morning targeted Jabal al-Rafi and the outskirts of Sajd in the Iqlim al-Tuffah area, Jabal Safi and Jbaa in Nabatieh, Wadi Zalaya in the western Bekaa, as well as the outskirts of Aaramta, al-Rayhan, al-Jarmaq and al-Mahmoudiya in Jezzine, and Wadi Bnaafoul, Tebna and al-Zrariyeh in Zahrani.
The strikes were accompanied by heavy low altitude flights by Israeli warplanes over the Bekaa and Baalbek, while an Israeli drone dropped a stun grenade on the outskirts of the Labbouneh area.
The Israeli army said its air force had struck a training complex used by Hezbollah’s Radwan Force, adding that the strikes also hit additional Hezbollah military infrastructure in several areas of southern Lebanon.
The raids came amid Western and Arab diplomatic moves aimed at separating the diplomatic track from developments on the ground, but Israel has offered no concrete guarantees to halt the bombardment.
Washington, while affirming support for preventing a slide into a comprehensive war, is treating the Israeli strikes within a framework that distinguishes between the Lebanese state and Hezbollah, while pressing Lebanon to accelerate steps to impose state monopoly over arms.
Paris, which continues to act as a political and military interlocutor through channels with the Lebanese army and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), is focusing on preventing a collapse of the situation in Lebanon, but is running up against a field reality beyond its ability to contain and a Lebanese inability to use the international support to protect it against Israeli attacks, according to Lebanese sources familiar with the contacts.
Negotiations under fire
A Lebanese parliamentary source following the movement of international envoys told Asharq Al-Awsat that Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri’s position reflects a clear rejection of negotiations under fire, as he sets a ceasefire and its consolidation as a precondition for any negotiating path and rejects turning the mechanism committee into a dialogue channel operating under bombardment.
The source said that despite the clarity of this stance, it has yet to be translated into a comprehensive Lebanese negotiating strategy.
The source added that the ongoing military escalation effectively reflects the failure of the current negotiating track so far, noting that Lebanon now finds itself negotiating under fire, an illogical equation that cannot be built upon.
It said the striking point is that talks are being conducted while Israeli bombardment continues, without the Lebanese side possessing real pressure cards or a clear negotiating vision, asking what Lebanon is bringing to the negotiating table.
The source said the absence of a clear negotiating objective makes the track closer to crisis management than genuine negotiations, stressing that any serious talks require a vision and mutual elements of strength, which do not appear to be available so far.
The source noted that Hezbollah is adopting a policy of silence and discretion at this stage and only comments through its official channels, recalling that its last declared position expressed acceptance of arrangements south of the Litani River, while showing high sensitivity to any proposal related to areas north of the Litani.
The source said what is unfolding amounts to a form of ongoing war at a controlled pace, adding that Israel is formally separating negotiations from escalation but in practice is using military pressure to improve its political terms, while the core dilemma remains the absence of a unified and clear Lebanese vision.
