IDF chief says fighting 'has only just begun'

Israel blows up bridge allegedly used by Hezbollah to move troops into south Lebanon

Attack on Litani River’s Qasmiya Bridge sparks fury in Beirut; IDF says 7 troops lightly wounded in northern Israel and south Lebanon, including one by Hezbollah drone

The Israeli Air Force blew up a bridge over Lebanon’s Litani River on Sunday, accusing Hezbollah of using it to move operatives and weapons into the country’s south, as Israel warned that its fight against the Iran-backed terror group had “only just begun.”

The strike on the Litani’s Qasmiya Bridge was met with anger from Beirut, which warned that the step was a “dangerous escalation” and demanded that the international community intervene to deter Israel from expanding its operations in Lebanon.

Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces said a Hezbollah drone impacted near Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, lightly wounding a soldier. Another four troops were lightly wounded in a safety-related incident during operations in southern Lebanon later Sunday, while two others were lightly wounded in a “work accident” in northern Israel, the IDF said, adding that all seven troops were hospitalized in good condition with their families notified.

Israel has carried out massive airstrikes in Lebanon and pushed troops farther into the country after Hezbollah renewed its rocket attacks on Israel on March 2 amid the bombing campaign that the US and Israel launched in Iran on February 28.

The Qasmiya Bridge was the fifth to be targeted by Israel since March 2. The IDF had warned earlier on Sunday that it intended to bomb the river crossing, located along Lebanon’s coastal highway just north of Tyre, to prevent Hezbollah from moving operatives and weapons into southern Lebanon.

The warning came after Defense Minister Israel Katz said he had instructed the IDF to “immediately destroy all the bridges over the Litani River that are used for terror activity, to prevent the passage of Hezbollah terrorists and weapons southward.”

A smaller bridge by the same name, located around a kilometer and a half from Sunday’s target, was struck by the IDF on Thursday — after issuing a warning for the area on Wednesday — resulting in a correspondent and camera operator for the Russian channel RT being lightly injured.

In its statement confirming Sunday’s strike, the IDF said the bigger Qasmiya Bridge was a “key” crossing used by Hezbollah to move operatives and weapons into southern Lebanon.

“The Hezbollah terror organization uses this crossing to transfer thousands of weapons, rockets and rocket launchers that it uses to carry out terror attacks from the area south of the Litani against IDF troops and Israeli civilians,” the military said.

It said it struck the bridge “to prevent harm to Israeli civilians as well as to Lebanese civilians.”

Footage from the aftermath of the strike showed that large craters now pockmarked the bridge, but that the crossing had not been demolished.

The military also said that a separate wave of airstrikes in the Nabatieh area of southern Lebanon on Sunday had targeted 15 Hezbollah command centers.

Israel estimates that just under 1,000 members of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force have crossed over the Litani into southern Lebanon to confront Israeli forces carrying out a ground operation in the area.

But the bridges have also been used by Lebanese civilians fleeing the fighting in the country’s south, with the UN Human Rights Office estimating that around one million people have been displaced by the renewed fighting.

Experts have warned that the targeting of civilian infrastructure, even if used for military purposes, could amount to a war crime.

“If all these bridges are struck, and the region that is south of the Litani becomes isolated from the rest of the country, then the civilian harm is going to be so immense that you have a humanitarian catastrophe as people still living in the south won’t be able to access food, medicine and other basic needs,” Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch, told Reuters on Sunday.

‘Prelude to a ground invasion’

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun warned on Sunday that the strikes targeting bridges over the Litani River were a “dangerous escalation” that appeared to be a “prelude to a ground invasion,” something Beirut has repeatedly cautioned against.

“These attacks constitute a dangerous escalation and a blatant violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty. They are considered a prelude to a ground invasion — something Lebanon has repeatedly warned against through diplomatic channels,” Aoun said, according to an Arabic-language post on his office’s X account.

“The targeting of the bridges over the Litani River — a vital artery for civilian movement — constitutes an attempt to sever the geographic connection between the area south of the Litani and the rest of Lebanese territory, and obstructs the delivery of humanitarian aid,” Aoun charged, saying it represents the pursuit of “Israeli expansion into Lebanese territory.”

Beirut “calls on the international community — particularly the United Nations and members of the Security Council — to assume their responsibilities and take immediate measures to deter Israel from carrying out this attack,” the president added.

But far from acceding to Aoun’s demands, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said in remarks released on Sunday evening that Israel’s fight against Hezbollah “has only just begun,” and said the terror group, not Israel, was to blame for harming Lebanon.

“Iran is our primary effort, and the northern arena is another central arena. They are interconnected,” Zamir said while approving battle plans at the Northern Command on Saturday. “The Hezbollah terror organization constitutes a central proxy of the Iranian terror regime, and it made a grave mistake when it chose to join the campaign against Israel. This choice harms it and the State of Lebanon as a whole.”

“The message is clear: There is no safe haven for the regime and its proxies, any threat to Israeli citizens will be met with a determined, precise and powerful response,” he said, according to remarks published by the military.

The Lebanese government, well aware of Hezbollah’s apportioned blame, has taken steps against the terror group since it launched six rockets at Israel in the early hours of March 2, including banning its military activities and reiterating its demand for it to hand over its weapons to the state.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam doubled down on his government’s stance in an interview with the Saudi Al-Hadath news channel on Sunday evening, saying it would not abandon its efforts to disarm the Iran-backed terror group, which he accused of unleashing heavy damage in Lebanon and undermining the government’s credibility.

Every rocket fired by Hezbollah has led to “10,000 displaced people” in Lebanon, he said, due to Israel’s retaliatory strikes and calls for wide swaths of the country to evacuate.

But Salam didn’t spare Israel from criticism, either, saying that its targeting of bridges in the country’s south had created a “disaster” for Lebanon, and particularly for its southern region.

Israel’s security establishment has said in an assessment to the political echelon that Hezbollah will in the coming days attempt to inflict major damage on infrastructure and sensitive facilities in Israel, Channel 12 reported Sunday, citing a security source.

According to the report, Hezbollah will be willing to engage in diplomacy to end the fighting in Lebanon only if an agreement comes as part of a broader regional deal that includes the end of the war in Iran.

Lebanon’s health ministry said on Sunday that 118 children and 79 women had been killed in the renewed fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. It has put the overall death toll at 1,024 people, although it does not differentiate between combatants and civilians.

The IDF has said that it has killed over 570 Hezbollah operatives, including 220 members of the terror group’s elite Radwan Force, since Hezbollah renewed its attacks on Israel.

More than 2,000 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon have also been struck, including 120 command centers, 100 weapon depots, and 130 missile launchers, according to the IDF.

In the same period, two IDF soldiers have been killed in southern Lebanon in a Hezbollah attack, and an Israeli civilian was killed on Sunday morning by a projectile possibly fired by the IDF.

Hezbollah has been firing an average of about 150 rockets per day, according to the IDF. Roughly two-thirds of the daily rocket fire has been directed at Israeli forces operating in southern Lebanon and along the border, with the remaining third aimed at Israel.

The IDF believes Hezbollah still possesses thousands of short-range rockets, along with hundreds of longer-range projectiles. The IDF has said that Hezbollah is launching most of its attacks from deeper within southern Lebanon, and not from close to the border.