By Dr Marwan Asmar
In a display of showmanship, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited southern Lebanon, Sunday, according to the Israeli media. He was accompanied by his Defense Minister Israel Katz and Israeli Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir. They are trying to shore up their illegal presence there.
Netanyahu was on what the Jerusalem Post called a “situational assessment” tour of the Israeli troops who are seeking to set up an illegal “occupation security zone” in the southern part of the country and thus encroaching on its sovereignty.
Thousands of Israeli troops in southern Lebanon are meeting stiff resistance from Hezbollah fighters. The Israelis want to establish a security zone in that part of the country in an attempt to stop what they claim as tireless Hezbollah missiles and drones fired and puncturing Israeli northern towns and cities.
In their attempt, the Israeli army are demolishing entire villages and detonating homes in different stretches of the Lebanese countryside to permanently displace people and drive them up to the north of the country.
Netanyahu’s presence in the southern part of the bleeding country is indeed a testimony of a criminal mind for the previous Wednesday, when a two-week ceasefire was signed between the USA and Iran, his airforce unleashed their warplanes and missiles on Beirut and other parts of Lebanon killing at least 250 and injuring over 1100 people in a 10-minute killing debauchery spree and destruction.
The London Guardian has provided a graphic description of what the Israel army is doing in southern Lebanon. The UN estimates that between 1 and 1.2 million were forced to flee their homes to the northern parts of the country and are waiting their return despite the facts that are being created on the ground.
Meanwhile the Israeli army has been pushing forward into Lebanon. They want to establish a security zone from the southern border up to the Litani River which is about 30 kilometers away. However, they are entering Lebanon from different border areas and say they are between 8-10 kilometers deep into different parts of southern Lebanon, depending on the different areas they are entering from. They are already in Khiam, Taybeh, Dier Siryan and Dier Mimas among a host of other villages and towns across the southern divide.
However, their control is checkered. In this last invasion Israeli has lost at least 13 soldiers with around 411 injured and the destruction of at least 100 tanks and military machinery including bulldozers in just the last month.
Take the town of Bint Jbeil, emotionally known as the capital of the revolutionary south. Today it stands as a major flashpoint. Currently, Bint Jbeil which is between four or five kilometers inside the Lebanese border, stands as a fierce point of resistance with Hezbollah fighters in daily direct clashes with the Israeli army.
While the Israeli military controls different parts of the town, they are not able to subdue it. Here, the resistance fighters are in top form. The Israeli army has been trying to control the town for the past month, at least since 16 March 2026 but they are still unable to do so despite attempting to encircle the town from different areas of southern Lebanon.
The re-invasion of Lebanon had been part of the US-Israeli war on Iran which is winding down through Washington’s attempt to reach a ceasefire and an end of the deadly and globally-catastrophic war that is effecting the world economy with its soaring oil prices. However, here, Israel refuses to stop with war until Hezbollah is weakened and disarmed, either unilaterally, through negotiations and by force.
But Hezbollah refuses to disarm or take any measures that would leave it exposed to Israel’s military might. What is likely to happen is a continuation of a war of attrition between the two, despite the fact that the Lebanese government may open talks with Israel in Washington in the coming days.
Dr Marwan Asmar is a Jordanian writer who blogs for crossfirearabia.com
14 April 2026
Source: countercurrents.org