Left out of western establishment media accounts of Washington’s war on Iran is coverage of its second front—the massive war the U.S. and Israel are waging on Lebanon. In what some are calling “the forgotten front,” Israeli is daily carpet bombing civilian areas of that country, has launched a ground troop invasion and had displaced over a million people, a fifth of Lebanon’s population of 5.5 million. Satellite imagery of bombed areas reveals a scale of destruction on a par with Gaza.
Israeli politicians are threatening to permanently occupy and even annex the southern part of Lebanon, up to the Litani River. All this is being done with U.S. weapons and a green light from Washington, whose diplomatic maneuvers in Lebanon paved the way for the latest Israeli invasion. In the face of such an attack, the people of Lebanon need support and solidarity from anti-war forces around the world.
Imposing the Gaza model
Israel has called for the evacuation of all Lebanese towns south of the Zahrani River, and that all of the 800,000 residents of the Dahiyeh suburb of Beirut leave their homes to avoid bombing. Isreal Occupation Forces have demanded that the entire southern city of Tyre, a world heritage site with a population of 200,000, leave. This includes the residents of that city’s three Palestinian refugee camps, Rashidieh, Burj al-Shamali, and al-Bass. They have nowhere to go, as they are not eligible to stay in shelters run for Lebanese.
Israel is imposing the Gaza model in Lebanon, regarding life-sustaining infrastructure, medical personnel, press, residences, civilians including women and children, as military targets to be destroyed. Lebanon’s health ministry reports 1,247 killed and 3,680 wounded by Israel from March 2, when the Israeli bombing began, to March 30. Among the dead are at least 86 women, 124 children, and 50 healthcare workers.
On March 21 alone, Israel bombed 30 communities across south Lebanon and Dahiyeh, killing 20. An Israeli double-tap strike on the town of Deir al-Zahrani in Nabatieh district wounded 21 people, including 10 Islamic Health Authority paramedics. On March 28, three journalists from Al Mayadeen and Al-Manar were killed by an Israeli bomb while in a car clearly marked ‘press.” Video footage showed Israeli forces using illegal white phosphorus. munitions in the town of Khiam. Israeli soldiers have begun releasing videos on social media documenting themselves ransacking the homes of displaced Lebanese people
Israel seeks to annex south Lebanon
Israel is systematically destroying all bridges over the Litani River that connect the area to its south to the rest of Lebanon with the aim of occupying, eventually annexing, and possibly building settlements in Lebanese territory south of that river. Israeli officials claim they merely want to crease a buffer zone, but many Israeli politicians and commentators are openly discussing territorial expansion to the Litani River and beyond as part of the historical Greater Israel project
Such a project appears to have a U.S. green light. In February, when asked by interviewer Tucker Carlson about expanding Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates rivers, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said. “It would be fine if they took it all.”
U.S. and Israel out to destroy Hezbollah
The areas under the heaviest attack are those administered by the resistance group Hezbollah, which is based in Lebanon’s Shia community, the largest and traditionally most oppressed of the country’s 18 religious groups. Hezbollah is supported financially and politically by Iran. Formed in 1985 as a reaction to the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and occupation of the south, over the years it has put up substantial resistance to imperialist and Zionist penetration. Today it is this group, not the Lebanese Army, which is fighting Israeli invading troops on the ground.
Both the U.S. and Israel seek to destroy Hezbollah and smash all expressions of Lebanese sovereignty.
Israel allowed a free hand
While targeting Hezbollah, the U.S. has given Israel a free hand in Lebanon. The U.S. brokered a November 2024 ceasefire here as part of the regional ceasefire agreement with Gaza. Stipulations were that Hezbollah fighters were expected to withdraw their forces and arms from the Lebanese villages south of the Litani River, and Israel was to withdraw from Lebanon in 60 days. Hezbollah complied, but Israeli troops never left southern Lebanon and continued to bomb. Israel has violated the U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal over 15,400 times in the past 14 months according to the Lebanese government. While constantly attacking Hezbollah, Washington never criticized Israel for these violations.
In February 2025 the U.S. installed a pro-western government in Lebanon specifically designed to exclude Hezbollah.
Today, during a huge Israeli onslaught this government has actually outlawed Hezbollah’s military activities and is arresting anyone with weapons who is not in the army. This government also declared itself open to talks with Israel while it carpet-bombs the country. This parrots the view of U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa, that Lebanon should ask for talks without calling for Israel to stop attacking Lebanon.
Meanwhile, the U.S is exerting pressure on Syria to invade Lebanon and disarm Hezbollah. While Damascus is hesitant to do this, it has amassed thousands of troops along its border with Lebanon.
Hezbollah, not Lebanese Army, is fighting Israeli soldiers
The resistance , however, has not been intimidated. Hezbollah continues to hit Israeli forces in Lebanon with ambushes and lob missile and drone attacks over the border. Fighting is particularly fierce in the Marjayoun District, along the border with Israel. Hezbollah appeared to successfully repel Israeli incursions in multiple locations, and claimed to have destroyed several Merkava tanks.
Hezbollah is left to fight Israel alone because the Lebanese Army has been ordered to stand down, and has withdrawn from south Lebanon villages as the invading Israeli forces advanced.
Imperialism and Zionism will not succeed
While the U.S. and Israel can cause much suffering in Lebanon, their plans of making Lebanon a vassal state, of annexing Lebanese land and destroying the resistance will not succeed. Zionism and imperialism have tried to do this many times, but always failed. In fact, this is the seventh Israeli invasion of Lebanon since 1978. Israel even occupied Lebanon south of the Litani River for 18 years and stole the river’s water for Israeli settlements, only to be forced out by Hezbollah and other Lebanese fighters in 2000. The indigenous people of the area, from Lebanon to Palestine to Iran, have shown that they will always resist oppression and occupation.
Photo: Displaced Lebanese family living in an improvised tent at the Beirut waterfront in rainy and windy weather. Screenshot from BBC video.
