Hezbollah fighters engaged Israeli soldiers in point-blank range combat north of the Litani River on Wednesday, according to a statement carried by the group’s Al Manar television network, marking the deepest ground incursion into Lebanon since a fragile ceasefire took effect in April and raising the prospect of a full-scale expansion of the 11-month conflict.
The exchange of fire took place in the town of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, roughly a mile north of the Litani River and well beyond the boundary of Israel’s self-declared security buffer zone in southern Lebanon — a significant geographic escalation that observers say could unravel the painstakingly negotiated ceasefire deal brokered in November and renewed in April.
The Israeli military said its forces carried out attacks on more than 150 sites in southern Lebanon in the preceding 24 hours, striking what it described as Hezbollah positions in Bint Jbeil, Maroun al-Ras, and the Bekaa Valley. The IDF also issued fresh evacuation warnings for residents of Nabatieh, instructing civilians to flee northward of the Zahrani River as ground operations intensified.
Health officials in Lebanon reported at least 31 people killed in Israeli airstrikes across southern Lebanon on Tuesday — one of the deadliest single tolls since the ceasefire took effect. Among the dead were at least four women and two children, according to a preliminary count from the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health. Rescue workers spent hours searching the rubble of residential buildings in Burj al-Shamali, on the outskirts of Tyre, pulling bodies from the wreckage as photographs from the scene showed aid workers carrying body bags through flattened streets.
The escalation came one day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he had instructed the military to deploy “large forces on the ground” and take control of new areas north of the Israeli-held buffer zone — a significant hardening of Israel’s position that drew swift condemnation from Hezbollah and its Iranian backers in Tehran.
A senior Hezbollah official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the group’s fighters were “fully prepared” to defend Lebanese territory and warned that any Israeli attempt to occupy new areas would be met with sustained resistance. “The enemy will pay a heavy price for every metre it attempts to advance,” the official said.
The United States, which played a central role in negotiating the April ceasefire, called for an immediate de-escalation. State Department spokesman James Whitmore told reporters in Washington that the US was “deeply concerned by the increase in violence” and urged both sides to return to the terms of the ceasefire agreement. “There is no military solution to this conflict,” Whitmore said. “We continue to believe that a diplomatic framework remains the only viable path.”
French President Emmanuel Macron spoke by telephone with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Wednesday and offered France’s full support for diplomatic efforts to prevent the situation from deteriorating further. A statement from the Élysée Palace said Macron had “underlined the absolute necessity of respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon.”
The United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon, in a post on social media platform X, expressed alarm at the escalation and called for an urgent session of the Tripartite Committee that oversees the ceasefire agreement. “The escalation overnight and into today is extremely worrying,” the statement read. “Civilian lives must be protected. The ceasefire must hold.”
Hezbollah’s direct ground engagement with Israeli forces marks a significant departure from the pattern of recent months, in which the group confined its operations largely to rocket and missile fire while avoiding close-quarters combat on Lebanese soil. Military analysts said the shift suggested Hezbollah was under pressure to demonstrate its commitment to defending Lebanese territory as Israel expands its military operations — and that the group was willing to absorb the significant risks that accompany urban close-combat fighting against a better-equipped adversary.
Israeli media, citing military sources, said the IDF had achieved “substantial progress” in degrading Hezbollah’s infrastructure in southern Lebanon but acknowledged that the group’s fighters remained embedded in civilian areas in ways that complicated the military’s operational options. Israel’s Channel 13 reported that the IDF was carefully calibrating its ground operations to avoid the kind of casualties that could trigger domestic political pressure to halt the campaign.
Lebanon’s already fractured political landscape was further strained by the violence. Prime Minister Mikati convened an emergency cabinet session and called on the international community to intervene before the situation spiralled further. “Lebanon cannot absorb another war,” Mikati said in a televised address. “We are making urgent appeals to all friends of Lebanon to help halt this aggression before it is too late.”
The Lebanese army, which has largely stayed on the sidelines during the months of hostilities, said it had deployed additional units to areas north of the Litani River to assist with evacuation efforts and to “preserve the state’s presence” in regions at risk of being overrun by the fighting. The army said it had not engaged Israeli forces and said its primary focus was protecting civilian life.
Regional analysts warned that the clashes north of the Litani River represented a qualitative break from the pattern of tit-for-tat strikes that had characterised the ceasefire period, and that both sides were now engaged in a test of will whose outcome was deeply uncertain. With Israel’s cabinet divided on the wisdom of expanding the ground campaign and Hezbollah’s leadership under pressure to show it can inflict costs on Israeli forces, the prospect of a return to full-scale war — eight months after a ceasefire was declared — appeared closer than at any point in recent memory.