Israel's 36th Armoured Division deployed to southern Lebanon on 17 March, joining the 91st Galilee Division that crossed the border the previous week. The 7th Armoured Brigade — the IDF's most decorated armoured unit, which held the northern Golan against a Syrian armoured onslaught during the 1973 Yom Kippur War — is now conducting raids in southern Lebanon, with the IDF claiming dozens of Hezbollah fighters killed and weapons depots dismantled1. Two armoured divisions operating simultaneously in Lebanon is the first multi-division Israeli ground operation there since the 2006 war.
New evacuation orders for Tyre, Nabatieh, and dozens of surrounding villages triggered panic across the south2. Residents reported heavy traffic and gunfire on evacuation routes. Tyre is Lebanon's fourth-largest city; Nabatieh is the administrative capital of the south. The IDF described the 91st Division's crossing as a 'forward defence' operation; the addition of a second division and the evacuation of major population centres has expanded the operation well beyond that framing. Earlier orders already extended past the Litani River to south of the Zahrani — nine miles from Sidon.
Haaretz assessed that the IDF's ground plans 'won't topple Hezbollah' — the operation will push launch sites northward without stopping rocket barrages3. Israel's 2006 ground offensive committed multiple divisions over 34 days and failed to stop Katyusha fire, which continued until the UN-brokered ceasefire on 14 August. The towns now under IDF operation — Tyre, Nabatieh, Khiam, Kfar Kila — are the same towns Israel occupied from 1982 to 2000, an 18-year presence that hardened Lebanese resistance and gave birth to Hezbollah as an armed movement. Khiam housed Israel's most notorious detention facility during that occupation; IDF troops fought Hezbollah in the town last week.
A Northern Command officer confirmed the operation could last 'until Shavuot' in late May — three months from the war's start and well beyond the Passover planning horizon IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin disclosed earlier. No previous Israeli military operation has required two armoured divisions in Lebanon and a sustained air campaign against Iran simultaneously. The IDF denied reports it is running low on missile interceptors, but sustaining two fronts at this intensity through May will test every element of Israel's military supply chain — from precision munitions to the Arrow and David's Sling interceptors that cost $2–3 million each.
