Two of southern Lebanon’s main cities
Ali Hashem
Israeli forces have advanced to within 5 km of Nabatieh, reaching Zawtar Al-Sharqieh, while residents of Tyre have already received evacuation orders.
The Lebanese government has no intention of mounting a military defense, leaving negotiations as its only recourse. Which is quite awkward. Hezbollah’s FPV drones can inflict costs on advancing Israeli forces, but cannot halt an invasion.
Iran’s condition, that Israel refrain from attacking Beirut and the southern suburbs, carries no real operational weight, as Netanyahu is clearly pursuing a new facts-on-the-ground strategy regardless.
More Israeli soldiers will be killed as more Lebanese land will be taken. Our villages have been systematically razed over these past months, and now the cities themselves are in the crosshairs.
Anyone waiting for a quick resolution should abandon that hope. I don’t see this as a crisis that could be measured in weeks or months, it is a transformation, total transformation that’s could last for years. And they will not be years of quiet suffering, they will be long, grinding, destructive years, with no clear end and no promise of anything resembling normalcy.