Israel mobilised reservists and the IDF launched what it termed an "offensive campaign" in Lebanon. The Times of Israel reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet President Trump had given approval for a new offensive against Hezbollah. Senior Israeli military officials have openly discussed a ground invasion — language the IDF avoided during the early phases of the 2006 Lebanon War, when ground operations were authorised incrementally and described as limited incursions.
The mobilisation follows a rapid escalation. Hezbollah struck an IDF base in Haifa, some 30 kilometres from the Lebanese border — well beyond the frontier zone that defined the 2006 conflict. Israel responded with strikes across Beirut's Dahieh district that killed 31 people and wounded 149 . The IDF killed Mohammad Raad, head of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc, and declared "no immunity" for any Hezbollah official or supporter — targeting criteria that extend to political figures and civilian sympathisers, categories without clear legal boundaries under international humanitarian law.
Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam called Hezbollah's Haifa attack "irresponsible and suspicious" and convened an emergency cabinet session with the army chief. Every Lebanese prime minister since the 1989 Taif Agreement had maintained careful ambiguity toward Hezbollah's military operations — a silence that allowed Lebanon's confessional power-sharing system to function while Hezbollah operated as an armed force outside state command. Salam broke that pattern. His word "suspicious" carries a specific implication: that Hezbollah may have struck Israel to provoke an invasion that serves Tehran's interest in drawing IDF forces north and away from the Iran campaign, rather than any Lebanese interest.
If the ground invasion materialises, Israel will fight in Iran, Gaza, and Lebanon simultaneously — a three-front commitment the IDF has not undertaken since the 1973 Yom Kippur War. In 1973, coordinated Egyptian and Syrian attacks nearly overwhelmed Israeli forces on the Sinai and Golan Heights before reserves could mobilise; Israel prevailed, but at a cost that reshaped its strategic doctrine for a generation. The IDF of 2026 has precision munitions, satellite intelligence, and Iron Dome. But the lesson of 1973 was about the limits of multi-front warfare regardless of qualitative advantage, and Hezbollah's pre-war arsenal — estimated by the Center for Strategic and International Studies at 130,000 to 150,000 rockets and missiles — exceeds the combined arsenals Israel faced across all fronts in 1973.
