The war between Israel and Hezbollah has accelerated quickly, with strikes hitting central Beirut and fighting intensifying along parts of the Israel-Lebanon border, according to the Associated Press. Israeli attacks on Wednesday hit multiple neighborhoods, including a strike that brought down a multistory apartment building on a main thoroughfare and caused damage to other structures nearby.
The escalation followed a Hezbollah barrage the previous night that included dozens of missiles into Israel, the report said. In southern Lebanon, Israeli troops were massing in preparation for a potential major ground invasion, while combat was already underway in some border areas, the Associated Press reported.
Lebanese officials sought to enter into direct negotiations with Israel to halt the fighting, but the report said those attempts had been unsuccessful. It also reported that neither Hezbollah nor Israel appeared to have an immediate desire to stop the war.
The renewed fighting came 15 months after a U.S.-brokered ceasefire stopped the previous war between Israel and Hezbollah, the Associated Press said. Since that ceasefire, Israel had continued near-daily airstrikes in Lebanon, it said, to stop Hezbollah from regrouping, and Israeli troops had also continued to occupy five hilltops on the Lebanese side of the border.
Hezbollah’s resumption of attacks in early March was framed as retaliation, according to the report. On March 2, two days after Israel and the U.S. attacked Iran as the conflict in the region widened, Hezbollah launched missiles toward Israel and said it was responding to the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and to “repeated Israeli aggressions” in Lebanon.
The Associated Press reported that the decision to re-enter the war surprised many in Lebanon, including within Hezbollah’s own Shiite base, where some accused the group of giving Israel an excuse to escalate. A senior fellow at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, Mohanad Hage Ali, said that from Hezbollah’s perspective joining the regional war was rational, adding that Hezbollah is backed and funded and trained by Iran, and that the collapse of Iran would “basically mean the death of Hezbollah as a project,” according to the report.
Hage Ali also said Hezbollah believed Israel would likely launch an offensive against it eventually even if Hezbollah had not entered the fray, and he argued that there was “no point in continuing to be a sitting duck until Israel finishes off your main ally and comes for you.” He said it made more sense for Hezbollah to join its ally in the war and try to achieve a ceasefire as part of a package, the Associated Press reported.
The conflict has produced a growing humanitarian toll. As of Wednesday, Lebanon’s health ministry said 968 people had been killed by Israeli strikes since March 2, including 77 women and 116 children, with more than 2,400 wounded, the report said. The Associated Press also reported that more than 1 million people have been displaced, and that many are sleeping in cars, on the streets, or in overcrowded schools being used as shelters.
Israel’s government reported sustained attacks from Lebanese territory. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Wednesday in a statement that “since March 2nd, Israel has been attacked from Lebanese territory more than 2,000 times with missiles and drones,” the Associated Press reported. The Israeli army said two soldiers were killed fighting in southern Lebanon and had not said how many were wounded, while the report said no serious civilian casualties in Israel had been reported from fire from Lebanon but that residents in the north remained on edge.
On the ground invasion question, UNIFIL said it has observed an “evident” buildup of Israeli forces along the border. Kandice Ardiel, a spokesperson for the peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL, said peacekeepers had seen concentrations of Israeli troops in at least half a dozen locations near the Blue Line in Lebanese territory and had heard clashes around the villages of Odaisseh and Khiam. She said UNIFIL forces had also “seen IDF ground incursions” in some cases at least 5 kilometers into Lebanese territory, but that they then withdrew rather than setting up permanent positions.
The Associated Press reported that an Israeli military official said several thousand soldiers were inside Lebanon, concentrated primarily along the border area for what he described as a defensive operation meant to protect nearby Israeli communities. The official said the operation was still in the beginning stages of a gradual process that could lead to a large-scale invasion and deeper incursion, and he spoke on condition of anonymity under military briefing guidelines. Lebanon’s army has not been an active participant in the fighting, the report said, but it noted that three Lebanese soldiers were killed in Israeli strikes on Tuesday and that Israel was investigating.
Tensions were also reported rising on Lebanon’s eastern border with Syria. The Associated Press said Syria’s military accused Hezbollah last week of launching artillery shells across the border toward Syrian army positions, and Hezbollah denied the accusation. It also reported that later reports said the U.S. had proposed Syria send forces across the border to fight Hezbollah, and that the U.S. envoy to Syria Tom Barrack denied those reports.
The Associated Press reported that a high-ranking Syrian official also denied that such a plan had been proposed, saying discussions had centered on preventing cross-border smuggling and the use of Syrian land by Hezbollah. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly, and the report said he added that Syria had informed the Lebanese government it would not interfere in Lebanon. Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told the Associated Press that Turkey had been approached by Lebanese officials about trying to diffuse the tensions and that it discussed the matter with its Syrian counterparts, and that Turkey had not spoken directly with Hezbollah since the war started.
The report said the renewed conflict has further-reaching consequences across Lebanon and the wider region, while highlighting that attempts to negotiate a halt have not succeeded and both sides show no immediate sign of backing down.