Israel has announced plans to occupy southern Lebanon.
According to Lebanese authorities, Israeli strikes over the last month have killed at least 1,200 people.
Iran-backed Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets at Israel.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the IDF would destroy houses and villages in Lebanon close to the border with Israel, following the “model [used] in Gaza” to “remove, once and for all, the threats near the border to northern residents”.
Let’s recap the evolving conflict.
28 February
The U.S. and Israel strike Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran-backed Hezbollah begins to launch rockets at Israel.
Israel retaliates by striking Beirut, the Bekaa valley, and southern Lebanon, according to internationalmedia.
The IDF says it has struck Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut.
3-6 March
Human rights organisations raise concerns about IDF-issued evacuation orders across southern Lebanon.
Amnesty International says the evacuation orders are “sowing panic and fuelling humanitarian suffering.”
“They provide no meaningful information about where or when the Israeli military might strike,” the organisation says.
9 March
Israel sends troops into Lebanon.
Israeli media reports Hezbollah missiles struck a satellite communication station.
16 March
Lebanon’s Ministry of Social Affairs says one million people have registered as being displaced.
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Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and the UK release a joint statement condemning the conflict.
“We are gravely concerned by the escalating violence in Lebanon and call for meaningful engagement... to negotiate a sustainable political solution,” they say.
“We stand in solidarity with the Lebanese Government and people, who have been unwillingly drawn into conflict.”
18-20 March
The IDF reports it has destroyed multiple bridges over the Litani River, which it says “Hezbollah used for both terrorist movement and to transfer thousands of weapons”.
25 March
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem says Lebanon should not negotiate with Israel.
“Negotiating with the Israeli enemy under fire... is imposing surrender and stripping Lebanon of its capabilities,” he says.
The Lebanese Public Health Ministry confirms Israeli strikes have killed 42 paramedics since the conflict began, which it says is a “flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.”
28-30 March
The World Health Organisation says strikes have killed nine more paramedics.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has told the IDF to “expand even further the existing security zone”.
The UN condemns the deaths of three peacekeepers in Lebanon in two days. It says it is investigating the deaths, believed to be caused by a roadside explosion from an unknown origin.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports the IDF has killed three journalists from Hezbollah-affiliated outlets. CPJ says the IDF told it one of the journalists was a Hezbollah member, “but did not provide evidence.”
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemns the deaths as a “breach of the rules guaranteeing the protection of journalists”.
31 March
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz says 10 soldiers have been killed in action while the IDF is “destroying terrorist infrastructure” in southern Lebanon.
He says once this process is finished, the IDF will set up a “security presence” up to the Litani River, and no residents of southern Lebanon will be allowed to return until it is deemed safe for people in northern Israel.
In addition, Katz says all houses and villages on Lebanon’s border with Israel “will be razed in accordance with the Rafah and Beit Hanoun model in Gaza in order to permanently remove the close-border threats”.
