“Save your lives and evacuate your homes immediately,” the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) told over a million residents of southern Lebanon, including its capital city Beirut. Chaos erupted as thousands of honking cars and panicked people filled the streets. These were the largest evacuation orders ever given to Lebanon by Israel. Lebanon has now become a new front in the Israeli, United States and Iran conflict.
Israel launches deadly air strikes into the suburbs of Beirut daily, targeting Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Shia Islamic political party and paramilitary group formed in 1982 to fight Israeli occupation. Israel and Hezbollah’s most recent war ended in a fragile cease-fire in late 2024. Fighting flared up again after Israel and the United States killed Iran’s Supreme leader, an ally of Hezbollah. Although Hezbollah does have a presence in southern Beirut, the area is also home to hundreds of thousands of civilians.
The Lebanese Health Ministry reported at least 700 casualties resulting from the recent Israeli attacks, including over 80 children, while no IDF casualties have been reported from the recent Hezbollah attacks. This conflict echoes the 2006 Lebanon war, which left over 1,000 dead, majority being civilians.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has evidence that Israel has been firing shells filled with white phosphorus on residential homes and neighborhoods, a violation of international law. In addition to igniting fires, white phosphorus is a chemical that can burn human flesh to the bone, cause respiratory damage and even death.
“The Israeli military’s unlawful use of white phosphorus over residential areas is extremely alarming and will have dire consequences for civilians,” said Ramzi Kaiss, researcher at HRW.
Israeli special forces arrived on March 7th in the village of Nabi Chit, located in the Bekaa Valley. The operation aimed to recover a navigator who had not been seen in 40 years. The Lebanese Health ministry reported 41 dead and 40 wounded, with no known Israeli casualties.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called urgently upon France for intervention
and support. The French Ministry expressed that they are “deeply concerned by the current displacement of civilians and is doing its utmost to meet their humanitarian needs.”
Aoun has also motioned for direct negotiations with Israel, after releasing a statement on March 10th. This statement condemned Israel for having “no respect for the laws of war, nor for international laws,” yet also remarkably voiced disapproval for Hezbollah, saying that the group is “an armed faction … that places no value on Lebanon’s interest nor on the life of its people.”
Aoun established the idea of a permanent truce that would leave the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) to disarm Hezbollah by sending Lebanese military troops into Israeli occupied areas when Israeli troops deploy from Lebanon. Many sources have voiced concerns in the LAF’s competence to contain Hezbollah. As of now, Israel has rejected peace talks and many believe the conflict could outlast the war in Iran.
