Lebanese and Israeli civilians woke again to explosions Monday and Tuesday as fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah continued.
“The situation is catastrophic,” said Sukaina Hemadah, 37, whose house in Beirut’s southern suburb Haret Hreik was demolished by an earlier Israeli air strike. She and her four children are living in a tent in downtown Beirut, dependent on food and water deliveries from aid groups. “We don’t have enough food… I am scared that diseases will spread soon as the sanitary situation is awful with only one toilet for about 900 people.”
Hemadah is among an estimated 1.2 million Lebanese displaced since Lebanon was drawn into the wider Middle East war after Hezbollah escalated attacks on Israel shortly after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed on February 28, 2026. By Tuesday midday, Lebanon’s health authorities reported 1,039 people killed and 2,876 injured.
Israeli forces have widened ground operations in southern Lebanon, a traditional Hezbollah stronghold. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said all five bridges over the Litani River used by Hezbollah for moving fighters and weapons have been destroyed and that the Israeli military will control remaining bridges and the security zone up to the Litani. He added that hundreds of thousands displaced from south Lebanon “will not return south of the Litani River until security is guaranteed for the residents of the north of Israel.”
Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah told Reuters that Hezbollah would continue fighting to prevent an Israeli buffer zone in the south, calling any Israeli occupation of south Lebanon “an existential threat to Lebanon as a state.”
Beirut-based analyst Lorenzo Trombetta said fighting will likely persist along the demarcation line between Israel and Lebanon. He argued Israeli strikes on bridges, electricity and water infrastructure are intended to make the south difficult to sustain civilian life and ordered, organized presence, and to isolate the battlefield as the Lebanese army has pulled back northward to avoid being cut off.
Following a November 2024 ceasefire that ended nearly a year of skirmishes and months of war, the Lebanese army and UN troops had been deployed in the south. The ceasefire had included a stipulation for Hezbollah’s disarmament, but Hezbollah has refused, saying it needs arms to defend Lebanon from ongoing Israeli attacks and an Israeli military presence along the border. Israel maintains Hezbollah’s arms pose a threat.
Hezbollah’s military wing is designated a terrorist organization by the US, Germany and others. The group is part of the Iran-sponsored “Axis of Resistance,” which includes Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen, and militias in Iraq — all opposed to Israel and the US.
Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said they are working to stop the war. Beirut declared Iran’s ambassador persona non grata and outlawed Hezbollah’s military and security activities earlier in March. But David Wood, senior Lebanon analyst at the International Crisis Group, said without substantial concessions from Iran and Hezbollah, the Lebanese government will struggle to offer meaningful negotiating value to Israel. “Beirut has proven incapable of reining in Hezbollah’s military activities by itself,” he said.
Many Lebanese blame Hezbollah for the crisis. “Hezbollah doesn’t care whether we are in war or peace,” said Abbass Saad, 32. “I am not only against Hezbollah’s moves, I am against its armed existence in principle.” Crisis Group’s Wood warned civilians will pay the highest price; they have no power to end the conflict.
Observers doubt popular anger will turn into a full-scale civil war. Ronnie Chatah, a Beirut-based political observer, said localized anger and some demographic conflict among the 1.2 million displaced is possible but not a full civil war. Trombetta noted that major Lebanese actors appear unwilling to enter such a confrontation given the memory and cost of past conflicts, and that Hezbollah and the Lebanese military share social ties and incentives to avoid direct clashes.
Still, Wood cautioned Hezbollah might risk confrontation if it perceives an existential threat. Kelly Petillo of the European Council on Foreign Relations warned Lebanon is descending into chaos and that Europe may see a new refugee wave as displaced people seek safety. She urged European support for resilience and reconstruction — especially in the heavily bombed south — to bolster trust in the Lebanese state and rebuild its legitimacy in contrast to Hezbollah.
Humanitarian conditions remain dire: large numbers are sheltering in centers, with friends or family, or in tents; sanitation is poor; and essential infrastructure has been damaged, complicating aid delivery and raising fears of disease and further displacement. Edited by Cathrin Schaer.