{"id":896571,"date":"2026-04-03T08:24:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T13:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/03\/israel-is-preparing-for-largest-scale-ground-offensive-in-lebanon-since-2006-war\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T08:24:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T13:24:18","slug":"israel-is-preparing-for-largest-scale-ground-offensive-in-lebanon-since-2006-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/03\/israel-is-preparing-for-largest-scale-ground-offensive-in-lebanon-since-2006-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel is preparing for largest-scale ground offensive in Lebanon since 2006 war"},"content":{"rendered":"<section>\n<nav><span><a target=\"_self\" href=\"http:\/\/www.jpost.com\/\">Jerusalem Post<\/a><span>\/<\/span><\/span><span><a target=\"_self\" href=\"http:\/\/www.jpost.com\/israel-news\">Israel News<\/a><span>\/<\/span><\/span><span><a target=\"_self\" href=\"http:\/\/www.jpost.com\/israel-news\/defense-news\">Defense News<\/a><\/span><\/nav>\n<section>\n<h2>Israel is preparing for largest-scale ground offensive in Lebanon since 2006 war &#8211; Axios<\/h2>\n<h2>According to the report, Israel plans to seize the entire area south of the Litani River and dismantle Hezbollah&#8217;s military infrastructure, in what officials say would &#8220;be like Gaza.&#8221;<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<section>\n<figure><img alt=\"Israeli military vehicles and tanks are seen along the border with Lebanon, March 7, 2026\" title=\"Israeli military vehicles and tanks are seen along the border with Lebanon, March 7, 2026\" fetchpriority=\"high\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/images.jpost.com\/image\/upload\/f_auto,fl_lossy\/q_auto\/c_fill,g_faces:center,h_720,w_1280\/710349\"><\/figure>\n<section>\n<section>Israeli military vehicles and tanks are seen along the border with Lebanon, March 7, 2026<\/section>\n<section>(photo credit: <span>AYAL MARGOLIN\/FLASH90<\/span>)<\/section>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n<section>\n<section>\n<section>\n<section><span><span>By<\/span><span><a target=\"_self\" href=\"http:\/\/www.jpost.com\/author\/tobias-holcman\">TOBIAS HOLCMAN<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/section>\n<section><time datetime=\"2026-03-14T03:53:07\">MARCH 14, 2026 03:53<\/time><\/section>\n<section><span>Updated: <\/span><time datetime=\"2026-03-14T07:29:29\">MARCH 14, 2026 07:29<\/time><\/section>\n<\/section>\n<section itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<section id=\"section-0\">\n<p>Israel is planning a large-scale invasion of southern Lebanon in order to dismantle Hezbollah&#8217;s assets south of the Litani River, <em>Axios<\/em> reported on Friday, citing Israeli and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/middle-east\/iran-news\/article-889881\">US officials<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-1\">\n<p>According to the report, Israeli officials are planning an operation in which the military would seize the entire area south of the Litani River and dismantle Hezbollah&#8217;s military infrastructure, which would be the largest one performed in Lebanon since the 2006 war.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-3\">\n<p>&#8220;We are going to do what we did in Gaza,&#8221; a senior Israeli official told <em>Axios<\/em>. According to the report, the offensive was planned after Hezbollah&#8217;s attack against Israel, where more than 200 rockets were fired against the country in coordination with Iran&#8217;s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-4\">\n<p>&#8220;Before this attack, we were ready for a ceasefire in Lebanon, but after it, there is no way back from a massive operation,&#8221; the report explained, citing senior Israeli officials.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-6\">\n<p>&#8220;The goal is to take over territory, push Hezbollah&#8217;s forces north and away from the border, and dismantle its military positions and weapons depots in the villages,&#8221; the official said.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-8\">\n<figure><img alt=\"People stand at the scene where a house was hit by a Hezbollah missile fired toward central Israel, March 12, 2026\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"822\" height=\"829\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/images.jpost.com\/image\/upload\/f_auto,fl_lossy\/c_fill,g_faces:center,h_537,w_822\/711066\"><figcaption>People stand at the scene where a house was hit by a Hezbollah missile fired toward central Israel, March 12, 2026 (credit: MICHAEL GILADI\/FLASH90)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/section>\n<h3 id=\"section-9\"><strong>IDF holds off on Lebanon invasion as Katz pushes for offensive action<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n<section id=\"section-10\">\n<p><span>The\u00a0<em>Axios<\/em>\u00a0report <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/israel-news\/defense-news\/article-889713\">contradicts statements that the IDF told\u00a0<em>The Jerusalem Post<\/em> on Thursday<\/a>, with the military not in favor of launching a full invasion of Lebanon, despite the Hezbollah attack.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-12\">\n<p>Despite Hezbollah firing over 200 rockets overnight (compared to at most 100 per day until now during this conflict) and an increased pace in drone attacks, the IDF still views Iran as the central theater of the current multifront war, with Lebanon being a secondary front mainly to prevent any attacks from Hezbollah and to keep the terror group on its back feet.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-13\">\n<p>According to the IDF, the results of air defenses and military coordination versus Hezbollah&#8217;s larger attack on Wednesday night were mixed.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-15\">\n<p>Less than an hour after the IDF\u00a0<span>told the <em>Post\u00a0<\/em><\/span><span>it was not considering a ground offensive,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/israel-news\/defense-news\/article-889725\" target=\"_blank\" rel>Defense Minister Israel Katz<\/a> issued a statement that seemed to threaten\u00a0<\/span>an imminent invasion.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-16\">\n<p>Katz, on behalf of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said that he had warned <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/middle-east\/article-889871\">Lebanese President Joseph Aoun<\/a> that if the Lebanese military did not crack down on Hezbollah rocket fire on Israel, the IDF would launch a larger invasion in Lebanon to bring down the rocket fire.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-18\">\n<p><em>Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n<section>\n<section><template data-dgst=\"BAILOUT_TO_CLIENT_SIDE_RENDERING\"><\/template><\/section>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n<p> Nancie Byron<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/israel-news\/defense-news\/article-889883\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jerusalem Post \/ Israel News \/ Defense News Israel is preparing for largest-scale ground offensive in Lebanon since 2006 war &#8211; Axios According to the report, Israel plans to seize the entire area south of the Litani River and dismantle Hezbollah&#8217;s military infrastructure, in what officials say would &#8220;be like Gaza.&#8221; Israeli military vehicles and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":896572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[372,22381],"tags":[8669,5622],"class_list":{"0":"post-896571","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"category-preparing","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-preparing"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=896571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/896572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}