Israel has greater than doubled the variety of troops alongside its border with Lebanon since March 1 and they’re looking houses in southern Lebanese villages that the army has ordered evacuated, a senior Israeli commander mentioned on Wednesday (March 18, 2026).
As Israeli warplanes pound Beirut in operations towards Hezbollah which have grow to be the deadliest spillover of the U.S.-Israeli warfare on Iran, heavy smoke could possibly be seen rising from villages in southern Lebanon as troops fired artillery throughout the border.
A whole bunch of hundreds of Lebanese have fled southern Lebanon since Israel ordered folks to clear the world south of the Litani River, considered by Israel as a stronghold of Iran-backed Hezbollah. The group has been firing rockets towards Israel since becoming a member of the warfare in assist of Iran on March 2.
‘Defensive positions’ inside Lebanon
“The plan is to be sure that Hezbollah doesn’t have army infrastructure,” mentioned the commander, whose identify was withheld by the Israeli army on safety grounds.
Talking to Reuters in Eilon, an Israeli city 4 kilometres from the border, the commander, who is accountable for infantry warfare in Lebanon, declined to say what number of troops Israel had now deployed within the space.
Describing the army’s fortifications inside Lebanon as “defensive positions”, he mentioned troops had been looking “the villages to see if Hezbollah hid weapons or communications centres”.
Requested if that included looking homes that residents had fled following Israeli orders, the commander mentioned: “In a few of the instances they hid their weapons in homes. We haven’t any selection however to be sure that home is just not a army set up.”
Hezbollah has publicly denied utilizing civilian infrastructure to retailer weapons. It accuses Israel of destroying houses to stop Lebanese from returning, one thing Israel denies. Many villages in southern Lebanon have been utterly destroyed.
Two Israeli troopers have been killed for the reason that begin of operations in southern Lebanon, the Israeli army says.
At the very least 968 folks in Lebanon have been killed for the reason that begin of Israel’s assaults, Lebanese authorities say.
Hezbollah has not supplied common updates on deaths amongst its fighters. On Monday, a Hezbollah official advised Reuters that a minimum of 46 had been killed to date.
Lebanese village of Khiyam an preliminary goal
The Israeli army is advancing slowly by way of southern Lebanon, aiming to utterly clear the city of Khiyam as a primary step earlier than advancing towards the Litani River, based on a Lebanese safety supply and a international official monitoring developments on the bottom.
In response to a query on whether or not Israel supposed to determine positions as much as the Litani, the commander mentioned it was not his resolution. If troops obtain orders, he added, they’re “ready to do all sort of operations”.
The Israeli army didn’t instantly touch upon its operations in Khiyam, 5 kilometres contained in the Lebanese border from the Israeli city of Metula.
Alongside the border close to Metula, Reuters noticed a number of Israeli army fortifications dug into hillsides, full of rows of tanks, armed personnel carriers, and bulldozers.
Smoke rose from Khiyam all through the day on Wednesday, and lots of the buildings on the southern aspect of the city had been decreased to rubble. A neighbouring city stays in ruins from Israel’s assaults in 2024.
‘Each 5 minutes you’ll be able to hear the bombs’
Israel’s northern border space with Lebanon is named the Higher Galilee, its rolling hills providing vantages into southern Lebanese villages now occupied and bombarded by Israeli troops.
Close to Metula, Israeli Apache helicopters and jets had been making near-constant sorties on Tuesday and Wednesday, with the sounds of rocket hearth from Lebanon interspersed with the booms of Israeli artillery hearth.
For residents of Israel’s far north, the present warfare with Hezbollah has seen much less rocket hearth than throughout a yr of preventing that resulted in 2024.
Hezbollah’s capacity to launch missiles has largely been degraded, however it nonetheless retains capability to strike areas deep inside Israel, Israeli officers say.
Ofer Moskovitz, 60, who works at an avocado farm within the space, and mentioned being so near the border meant he had little time to run to a bomb shelter when sirens signalled incoming Hezbollah hearth.
Close to his farm, the army dug out a muddy fortification from the place troops fired artillery throughout the border.
“Each 5 minutes you’ll be able to hear the bombs,” he mentioned.
Revealed – March 19, 2026 01:24 am IST