The U.S.-Israeli Invasion of Lebanon

The Israeli reporter Amos Harel wrote, “the massive airlift of cargo planes from the United States continues, mainly bringing U.S.-made munitions. Between the start of the war and the end of last week, more than 200 U.S. planes have landed in Israel.”

In early March 2026, the second U.S.-Israeli invasion of Lebanon began a year and a half after the U.S.-Israeli invasion of Lebanon in October 2024. The broad explanation of the second U.S.-Israeli invasion of Lebanon is that Hezbollah attacked Israel, and Israel is defending itself. Israeli reporters paint a different picture.

Israel and Lebanon signed a ceasefire in November 2024. The Wall Street Journal admitted, since the ceasefire, “Israel has maintained a troop presence on some Lebanese hilltops and hit Lebanon more than 2,000 times.” In translation, Israel violated the ceasefire on a near-daily basis and occupied Lebanese territory (in violation of the ceasefire).

The 2,000 Israeli ceasefire violations was a conservative number. The Norwegian Refugee Council, “documented more than 7,500 Israeli airspace violations and nearly 2,500 ground violations.” Harel admitted in Haaretz, “The IDF attacks relentlessly in Lebanon,” and “at the moment [Hezbollah] is not responding in any way to the Israeli attacks.”

Israel violated the ceasefire with Lebanon over 10,000 times. Yet, Harel reported, “Until the war with Iran began, Hezbollah had chosen not to respond to repeated Israeli attacks in Lebanon.” The Israeli news outlet +972 wrote, “many in Lebanon suspected that this escalation was inevitable… Israel was only waiting for a suitable pretext.”

Now that Israel has the pretext, the plans for Lebanon are being openly admitted. The New York Times wrote, “Israeli officials offered their most explicit plan to date to occupy a swath of southern Lebanon.” IDF Brig. Gen. Harel Knafo outlined the strategy to occupy southern Lebanon; “I would like a scorched-earth southern Lebanon… To raze it totally.”

Haaretz reported, “Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the IDF is accelerating the demolition of Lebanese homes in frontline villages along the southern border, ‘in line with the model we applied in Gaza’s Rafah and Beit Hanoun,’ which have been largely flattened.”

The Gaza-ification of Lebanon is catastrophic. Haaretz wrote, in Lebanon, “Entire neighborhoods have been destroyed, hospitals are being attacked.” The United Nations reported, in Lebanon, “Entire villages have been flattened, and vital infrastructure destroyed.”

The Times of Israel wrote, “War in Lebanon has wounded or killed the equivalent of one classroom of children daily.” United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher said, “Over the past four weeks, more than 1,240 people have been killed,” and “1.1 million people were displaced.”

The United Nations Children’s Fund wrote, “In just three weeks, more than 370,000 children have been forced out of their homes in Lebanon, an average of at least 19,000 girls and boys displaced every single day.”

This is a U.S.-Israeli invasion of Lebanon because without U.S. military aid, Israel can’t erase Lebanese neighborhoods. We pay for Israel to occupy Southern Lebanon. The responsibility lies in Washington.

-Anton Porcari

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