Israel Calls for More Towns, Villages in South Lebanon to Evacuate

Facts

• The Israeli military on Thursday called for Lebanese in over 20 cities, towns, and villages to evacuate, including south Lebanon's largest city Nabatieh. The Lebanese government has said that over 1.2M people have fled regions affected by Israel's bombing campaign.^[1]
• The Financial Times reported that the bombing has destroyed around 3.1K buildings since Sept. 20 and killed over 1.3K people — exceeding the death toll from the 2006 war with Israel — making this the deadliest conflict in Lebanon since the civil war. Over 60K Israelis have been displaced by Hezbollah's rocket fire.^[2]
• Hezbollah said on Thursday that it had repelled an Israeli advance at Fatima gate near the Israeli border town of Metula with artillery. The group also said that it continued to fire rockets into northern Israel. In a first since the war began, the Lebanese army fired on Israeli forces after two of its soldiers were killed in separate incidents.^[3][4][5]
• Israel's military accused Hezbollah of using the Masnaa border crossing with Syria to smuggle weapons into Lebanon. Lebanese Minister of Transport Ali Hamieh, who is affiliated with Hezbollah, denied the accusations.^[6][7]
• With the situation remaining tense, US Pres. Joe Biden said that the US and Israel are discussing the possibility of Israeli strikes on Iran’s oil infrastructure in response to Iran's missile attack on Israel on Tuesday. Biden said previously he would not support Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.^[8]
• Iran warned that a large Israeli strike would lead to attacks on Israeli infrastructure, adding that any country that aids such an attack would be deemed a 'legitimate target.' In a separate warning, Iran reportedly told the US that 'the phase of unilateral self-restraint has ended.'^[1][9]

Sources: ^[1]Guardian, ^[2]Ft, ^[3]Jerusalem Post, ^[4]Almayadeen, ^[5]Middle East Eye, ^[6]Alarabiya, ^[7]Lorientlejour, ^[8]BBC News and ^[9]Al Jazeera.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by New York Times. Though the situation in the region continues to escalate, the US has stood firm in its role as a mediator. Israel has every right to respond to the daily terror attacks it has seen since Oct. 7. However, it's in no one's interest for tensions to explode into a wider regional war. The US will continue to work toward regional stability.
• Pro-Israel narrative, as provided by Jerusalem Post. Israel has been incredibly patient regarding the situation in the north, but, after a year of daily terror attacks on Israeli civilians, Israel has been forced to deal with Hezbollah more aggressively. Indeed, Iran's attack on Tuesday proves that Israel's patience has not led to de-escalation. Israel wants peace more than anyone, but it cannot allow Hezbollah and other Iran-backed terror groups to threaten its society in such an existential way.
• Pro-Palestine narrative, as provided by Middle East Eye. Israel has greatly escalated the situation in the region, with the US supporting it every step of the way. Indeed, Israel may expand its genocidal campaign that began in Gaza to Lebanon. Though the US, the most powerful country in the world, has continued its charade that it wants de-escalation, the reality is the US fully supports Israel's crimes across the region. Hamas and Hezbollah may be weakened, but resistance to Israel's expansionist project is inevitable.