The Litani River, a 90-mile waterway that cuts across southern Lebanon, has again become a focal point of the latest war between Israel and Hezbollah, the second in two years.
After Hezbollah, an Iran-backed group, fired rockets into Israel earlier this month, the Israeli military went on the offensive, launching large-scale airstrikes which Lebanese authorities say have since killed more than 1,000 people.
Israel has issued sweeping evacuation orders for all of southern Lebanon. Hundreds of thousands of residents were warned to move north of the Litani River before those orders were later extended farther.
The Litani’s role in the conflict dates back decades, shaped by repeated rounds of fighting along the Israeli-Lebanese border.
Until 2000, Israeli forces occupied a swath of southern Lebanon that they called a security zone, as they fought a grinding insurgency led by Hezbollah. After Israel withdrew, the area south of the Litani remained one of Hezbollah’s strongest bases of operations, where the group has deep support among the area’s Shiite Muslim community.
That reality shaped a cease-fire that ended a major war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006. Under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, the area between Israel’s border and the Litani — roughly 15 to 20 miles to the north — was meant to be free of Hezbollah fighters. The resolution turned the river into the upper bound of a buffer zone that was to be controlled by the Lebanese military, with support from United Nations peacekeepers.
That agreement, however, largely failed.
Though the border remained relatively calm for two decades, Israel argued that Hezbollah was building up weapons and fighters south of the river. Lebanon’s government and Hezbollah accused Israel of remaining in disputed border areas and of repeatedly violating Lebanese sovereignty.
After war erupted again in October 2023, Lebanon’s government pledged the following year to disarm Hezbollah under the terms of another fragile cease-fire agreement, beginning in areas south of the Litani.
The Lebanese government claimed progress in recent months, but Israeli officials accused Hezbollah of rebuilding its military capabilities faster than the Lebanese state could dismantle them. The latest round of fighting has cast further doubt on how durable those disarming efforts were.
Now, as the conflict escalates, Israel appears to be moving to enforce its own version of a buffer zone.
In recent days, the Israeli military has attacked bridges and crossings over the Litani, accusing Hezbollah of using them to move fighters and weapons into southern Lebanon. Analysts say the strikes serve a dual purpose: increasing pressure on the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah, while also creating a choke point to disrupt the group’s supply lines as Israeli forces push deeper into the country.
Many in Lebanon fear that the Litani could become the ultimate objective of Israel’s expanding ground invasion, and possibly the boundary of a renewed Israeli-occupied zone in southern Lebanon.
Euan Ward is a Times reporter covering Lebanon and Syria. He is based in Beirut.
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