The Israeli government says it has authorised its forces to advance into Lebanon and “take control of additional areas” to prevent Hezbollah using them to fire into Israeli border settlements as part of Operation Roaring Lion, Jerusalem’s counterpart of the American Operation Epic Fury.
Israel is reacting to the decision “of the Hezbollah terror organization to join the campaign of the Iranian terror regime” and is moving forward to occupy land used to launch attacks against Israeli border communities, they said on Tuesday morning. Air raid sirens sounded in the north of Israel again on Tuesday morning as Hezbollah rocket attacks, launched from inside Lebanon, struck the Galilee area, The Times of Israel reported.
Announcing the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) invasion of Lebanese border areas in a statement on Tuesday, defence minister Israel Katz said he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had “approved the IDF to advance and take control of additional areas in Lebanon to prevent firing on Israeli border settlements”.
Katz said terror organisation Hezbollah would “pay a heavy price” for firing rockets into Israeli. He said: “We promised security for the Galilee settlements, and so it will be done.”
The statement followed an earlier message on Monday evening when Katz warned Secretary-General of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah had been “marked for elimination” because he gave the order to open fire on Israelis. Warning other groups not to follow in Hezbollah’s footsteps by answering Iran’s call to take up arms, Katz warned those doing so would be taken out as the U.S. took out Khamenei, and sent directly to “the depths of hell”.
The IDF published its own communication on the state of operations, noting it had launched a wave of “extensive airstrikes” on Hezbollah command centres, propaganda offices, and weapons dumps in Beirut overnight. These facilities were “under civilian cover”, they said, but the IDF assured “all the targets are terror targets” and that “Prior to the strike, steps were taken to reduce the chance of harm to civilians, including advance warnings, use of precision munitions, and aerial observations.”
Plumes of smoke rise from the sites of Israeli airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut on March 3, 2026. The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders for dozens of locations in Lebanon on March 3, including warning residents in two southern Beirut neighbourhoods to stay away from several buildings ahead of an imminent operation. (Photo by IBRAHIM AMRO / AFP via Getty Images)
Hezbollah, for its part, said it was hitting targets in the Golan Heights and northern Israel with “a large missile salvo”. Israel has debuted a new “game-changing” laser weapon used to shoot missiles and rockets out of the sky in what is reported to have been its first operational deployment.
Britain’s state broadcaster the BBC notes in particular that Israel’s army advancing into Lebanon marks the end of the 2024 ceasefire between the two countries, negotiated by the United States under the aegis of President Joe Biden.
As reported at the time of that agreement: “Israelis are divided over the ceasefire, with some welcoming the pause in fighting, and others sceptical that it will bring long-term quiet on the border”. The ceasefire remained contentious, with Israel accusing Lebanon of failing to withdraw north as agreed, and Lebanon accusing Israel of using its border monitoring posts to “occupy” land.
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