CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Auguries of Failure: Israel Invades Lebanon, Yet Again

Photograph Source: Tasnim News Agency – CC BY 4.0

When will Israel realise that invading Lebanon with paralytic compulsion can never be the solution to its security ills? Having destroyed Gaza with existential, illegal fury, the Israeli Defense Forces have commenced operations in Lebanon with a similar, devastating imprint.  Doltishly assuming that the Lebanon front would stay quiet as it went about its business committing the crime of aggression against Iran, Israel again faced rocket attacks against Hezbollah on March 2.  The November 2024 ceasefire agreement, rarely observed as it was, had been effectively entombed.

Since then, the front has reopened in fury, with Israel targeting Hezbollah positions, frightening the civilian population of south Lebanon into fleeing in anticipation of a military offensive, and targeting bridges across the Litani River.  As of March 22, Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health had documented 1,029 deaths, including 118 children and 40 medical workers.  The initial phases of the invasion have commenced, with a promise of indefinite occupation of southern Lebanon.

On March 22, Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz announced that both he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered, not only the destruction of the all bridges over the Litani River “to prevent passage of Hezbollah terrorists and weapons southward” but the accelerated “destruction of Lebanese homes in the border villages in order to thwart threats of the Israeli settlements”.  Ominously, these models of annihilation would emulate the examples used in Beit........

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