Dear Friends and Comrades, 

Amid the escalating US and Israeli war on Iran, the Israeli invasion of South Lebanon is intensifying. In addition to drone and missile attacks in Beirut, Israel is carrying out a combined ground and aerial campaign aimed at creating a so-called buffer zone up to the Litani River. Defense Minister Israel Katz has outlined plans to destroy border infrastructure and block the return of more than 600,000 residents, following approaches in Gaza. While this escalation is often treated as a new development following the 2024 ceasefire, for the residents of the area south of the Litani River the war has never ended. Left defenseless after Hizballah decamped north of the Litani, and without any assistance from the Lebanese national army, the residents of South Lebanon have endured bombings, drone and grenade attacks and ground incursions for the last year and a half. 

Today, we are publishing an article that chronicles the experience of ordinary families from Lebanon’s south in the face of the current wave of Israeli aggression. In “‘Our Compass is Broken’–Israel’s Ongoing War on South Lebanon,” Susann Kassem tells of the struggles her extended family has faced as their homes and villages in the south and in Dahiyeh have been destroyed and terrorized by the IDF. She writes of family members whose homes have been vandalized with lewd graffiti and waste, who have had to bury their dead in relative solitude and who live in constant terror of being subjected to an IDF attack. She also chronicles the de facto occupation that had taken place in the south following the 2024 escalation.

For more on the dynamics of Israel’s assault on South Lebanon, the latest episode of the MERIP Podcast as well as Maya Mikdashi and Rima Majed’s entries in our recent collection on the war cover the political dynamics that have left South Lebanon defenseless against Israeli attacks. Munira Khayyat’s dispatch from South Lebanon in the immediate wake of the fall 2024 ceasefire details how residents of southern villages attempted to persist in their lives in the face of ongoing conditions of war. Our primer on Lebanon and its history of resistance against Israeli violence provides a thorough account of the long history of Israeli designs on South Lebanon and its connections to wider Lebanese politics. 

We hope you’ll find Susann Kassem’s article illuminating and that you’ll help us continue shedding light on underreported stories from the region.  

In Solidarity

James Ryan
Executive Director