Mapping Israel’s Invasion of Lebanon

UPDATED October 11, 2024

Where visual evidence shows Israeli troops in Lebanon

Israel is conducting a multipronged attack into southern Lebanon, a New York Times analysis of commercial satellite imagery and videos posted by the Israeli military found. The attacks are being launched from areas in northern Israel that were designated as closed military zones early in the week.

Earlier last week, Hezbollah reported clashes with Israeli forces in three border towns, but details on the exact extent of Israel’s invasion have been scarce. This visual evidence is some of the first independent verification of where Israeli troops have been operating and how far they have advanced into Lebanese territory.

A comparison of commercial satellite imagery from before and after Israel launched its invasion found at least seven locations where new vehicle tracks had been created near the Israel-Lebanon border. For example, images near the village of Yaroun, Lebanon, shown below, indicate likely crossing points into Lebanon for Israeli armored vehicles.

Locations could also be determined from videos posted by the Israeli military on social media. A video posted on the Israel Defense Forces’s Telegram channel last week showed Israeli troops entering a building in Yaroun, which is about a mile from the border.

Satellite images and video indicate that over the past week, the Israeli military has flattened large parts of Yaroun and a second border village nearby, Maroun al-Ras.

— Josh Holder

October 3, 2024

Israel expands evacuation warnings in southern Lebanon and strikes the heart of Beirut

Israel issued a new evacuation order for more than 20 towns in southern Lebanon that reached farther north than previous orders. Although it remains unclear how far Israel intends to send ground troops into southern Lebanon, the order expands the area Israel is seeking to clear of residents roughly 20 miles to the north.

All of the towns from Thursday’s warning are north of the Litani River, outside a buffer area established by the U.N. at the end of the 2006 war.

Overnight, Israel struck the Bachoura neighborhood of Beirut, killing at least nine people, according to Lebanese health authorities. No apparent warning preceded the strike, which was the closest to Beirut’s city center since 2006.

The strike hit several hundred yards from Lebanon’s parliament and several Western embassies. Other large explosions throughout the day pounded the Dahiya area, a cluster of densely populated neighborhoods on the southern outskirts of Beirut where Hezbollah has a strong presence.

— Lauren Leatherby

October 2, 2024

The unforgiving terrain where Israel is fighting with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon

Israel and Hezbollah were fighting at close range in southern Lebanon on Wednesday in at least two areas near the border, according to reports from the Israeli military, Hezbollah and Lebanon’s army.

The reported clashes were near closed military zones where Israel has amassed troops and equipment on its side of the border. One of the locations of fighting reported by Hezbollah, Maroun al-Ras, was the site of a major battle during Israel’s last invasion of Lebanon in 2006.

Southern Lebanon is a rugged area, filled with steep valleys in which defenders can ambush an invading army, a factor that may have shaped Israeli military planning. The tough terrain has historically helped factions in the region to defend themselves.

— Lauren Leatherby and Pablo Robles

October 1, 2024

The escalating attacks across the Middle East

It is one of the Middle East’s most dangerous moments since the Arab-Israeli War of 1967: After Israel assassinated Hezbollah’s leader and began a ground invasion of Lebanon, Iran retaliated by launching nearly 200 missiles at Israel.

Israel is expected to respond with its own strike on Iran, raising the prospect that the conflict will continue to intensify.

Israel is now fighting on a multitude of fronts with Iran and an axis of Iran-backed militias across Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen and Syria. On Sunday, Israel launched a missile attack on the port city of Hudaydah in Yemen, targeting Houthi fighters there after the Houthis fired a missile at Tel Aviv.

Meanwhile, Israel has continued to bombard Gaza with airstrikes, including hitting a United Nations school complex that killed 18 people in September. The Israeli military said the site was being used as a Hamas “command and control center,” a claim it has repeatedly made to justify increasingly frequent strikes on schools serving as shelters.

— Josh Holder and Leanne Abraham

October 1, 2024

Israel launches invasion of Lebanon

Israeli forces crossed into southern Lebanon late on Monday in an operation aimed at Hezbollah forces and infrastructure in the rugged border region. Israel ordered people in more than two dozen towns to move north of the Awali River, which is more than 15 miles from the Israeli border.

There are few details known about where Israeli ground forces are operating in Lebanon, or what the ultimate scope of the invasion will be. The Israeli military said one army division — which typically numbers more than 10,000 soldiers — was conducting “limited, localized and targeted raids,” but it is unclear how many of those troops had already crossed the border.

American officials said on Monday that they believed the invasion would be a limited one.

The Israeli military declared a closed military zone on Monday at the northern tip of Israel bordering southern Lebanon. The landscape there is rugged, filled with steep valleys in which defenders can easily ambush an invading army, a factor that may have shaped Israeli military planning.

— Lauren Leatherby, Leanne Abraham, Pablo Robles, Josh Holder and Agnes Chang

October 1, 2024

The extent of Israel’s last invasion of Lebanon

Israel has occupied parts of Lebanon before. It had forces in southern Lebanon from 1982 to 2000, and it briefly invaded again in 2006 during a monthlong war with Hezbollah that affected some of the same villages people that were told to leave on Tuesday.

— Lazaro Gamio

October 1, 2024

Israel’s invasion of Lebanon was preceded by intense air attacks

Early last week, Israel waged one of the most intense air raids in modern warfare, leaving large parts of southern Lebanon in ruins and forcing tens of thousands of people to flee. The attacks killed more than 500 people in a single day, according to Lebanon’s health minister.

On Friday, a massive Israeli bombing barrage killed Mr. Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, near Beirut, and Israeli strikes continued to pound the area south of Beirut in the hours and days after the assassination.

Before and after Mr. Nasrallah’s assassination, Israeli strikes had hit only south of the city center. But on Monday, an Israeli strike in the Cola neighborhood of Beirut appeared to be the first time it had struck the city center since 2006.

— Lauren Leatherby

By Lauren Leatherby, Leanne Abraham, Josh Holder, Agnes Chang, Lazaro Gamio, Bora Erden and Pablo Robles

Reporting was contributed by Aric Toler and Riley Mellen.