{"id":317905,"date":"2026-03-02T13:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T13:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/317905\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T13:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T13:14:11","slug":"hezbollah-just-restarted-the-fight-that-israel-was-waiting-to-finish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/317905\/","title":{"rendered":"Hezbollah just restarted the fight that Israel was waiting to finish"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n In the pre-dawn hours of Monday morning, Hezbollah opened a new front in the US-Israeli war against Iran<\/a> when it launched \u201cmissiles and a swarm of drones\u201d at a military base in northern Israel.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Iran-backed militant group, which has its power base in southern Lebanon, called it revenge for the killing of Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.\n <\/p>\n

\n Never mind that Israel says the attack did no damage. One projectile was intercepted, while others fell in open areas.\n <\/p>\n

\n Or that Lebanon\u2019s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam called it \u201can irresponsible and suspicious act,\u201d and banned Hezbollah\u2019s military activities.\n <\/p>\n

\n Israel has been poised for this moment for months. Even after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect in 2024, the Israeli military has been striking Lebanon on a near-daily basis, accusing Hezbollah of violating the agreement by rearming and rebuilding its forces. In November, Israel said it killed Hezbollah\u2019s second most senior figure and Chief of Staff, Haytham Ali Tabatabai.\n <\/p>\n

\n But those were largely individual strikes.\n <\/p>\n

\n In the past, the US tried to prevent a wider conflict along the Israel-Lebanon border, helping to set up the first direct talks between the two countries\u2019 civilian officials late last year. Now Hezbollah\u2019s decision to enter the fray and expand the conflict has given Israel\u2019s leadership every reason it needs to dramatically intensify its strikes on Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and the capital Beirut.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cHezbollah opened fire last night. We warned it. It will pay a heavy price,\u201d said Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin at a press briefing. As of Monday morning, Lebanon\u2019s Ministry of Health said at least 31 people had been killed and 149 injured in Israeli airstrikes in Beirut and southern Lebanon.\n <\/p>\n

\n A day earlier, Israel announced it was calling up 100,000 reservists \u2013 \u201cdozens of battalions, brigades, and divisions\u201d \u2013 many of whom would be deployed to the northern border with Lebanon. The IDF still occupies five points across the border, holding them indefinitely as observation posts from which it can look into southern Lebanon.\n <\/p>\n

\n With such a significant mobilization of additional forces, Defrin was asked if Israel is preparing for a broader ground incursion into Lebanon.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAll options are on the table. We are conducting ongoing situation assessments,\u201d said Defrin.\n <\/p>\n

\n The IDF\u2019s foreign media spokesman, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, was more demure when asked the same question. \u201cThere are no imminent preparations underway for a ground invasion,\u201d Shoshani told reporters. But he warned about the possibility of a long campaign ahead.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIf Hezbollah escalates further, this situation could continue for weeks,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the pre-dawn hours of Monday morning, Hezbollah opened a new front in the US-Israeli war against Iran…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-317905","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}