An iftar in the village of Khiam, in southern Lebanon, amid the rubble of buildings bombed by the Israeli army, on March 15, 2025. (Credit: Rabih Daher/AFP)
Despite cease-fires in Lebanon and Gaza, Israel resumed heavy bombing of the Palestinian enclave on Monday evening and continued its targeted strikes in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli air force killed 413 people on Tuesday alone, the Gaza Health Ministry announced, marking the deadliest day of hostilities in more than a year in Gaza, collapsing a cease-fire in place since Jan. 19.While in southern Lebanon, Israeli attacks since the cease-fire with Hezbollah came into effect on Nov. 27 have claimed at least 102 lives.
This escalation in Gaza, and to a lesser extent in southern Lebanon, is causing great concern among many Lebanese, compounding the existing struggles of residents whose return home has been marred by widespread destruction as several border villages have been completely razed to the ground.
“The war has never really ended, neither in Lebanon nor in Gaza” said Zeinab, a 60-year-old teacher and resident of Sour. “Escalation in southern Lebanon is a continuation of the war Israel is waging against Lebanon.”
Zeinab said she had anticipated “a resumption of the war” in Gaza. “The Lebanese state will gain nothing through diplomatic means, and the war will continue until the Lebanese government accepts a peace agreement and normalizes with Israel.”
“We must resume the resistance,” she added, referring to Hezbollah, which suffered heavy military losses during the war. The Israeli army still occupies five positions in southern Lebanon and refuses to withdraw, despite the ongoing cease-fire.
'Preparing for new resistance'
Faten Sabah, a 55-year-old activist living in Nabatieh, said there is one thing certain: “The escalation shows that the Israeli enemy does not want life to return to normal in Lebanon’s southern villages.”
She accused Israel of using a “scorched earth policy,” a charge mounted yet again by various organizations in light of Israel’s total destruction of urban areas both during the war and during the cease-fire. “I don’t understand how a cease-fire was put in place [in Lebanon] while allowing the enemy the freedom to do whatever it wants,” she said. “The Lebanese state must defend its citizens,” she added, echoing Hezbollah’s rhetoric since the cease-fire.
When the cease-fire was implemented, Israel and the U.S. signed a side-agreement in which it was understood that Israel could respond militarily to any action it perceived as a threat from Lebanese territory. This pretext would justify the near-daily Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon, despite the supposed cease-fire.
With the resumption of Israel’s massive bombing campaign against Gaza, Faten is torn “between anger and tears.”
“What is happening is indescribable. Massacres are being committed, and the world is letting it happen,” she said. “We cannot trust Israel, which has the green light from the United States.”
“The war is not over yet,” said Samir, another resident of the South. “The people of southern Lebanon must be ready for a new resistance. We have nothing left to lose. The Israeli enemy kills and steals our land.”
He believes this logic also applies to Gaza. “Abou Ammar [former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat] signed an agreement [with Israel in 1993 in Oslo], and they continued to wage war against him. As for Abou Mazen [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas], he does everything Israel asks, while Israel refuses to grant rights to the Palestinians,” he said. “We cannot do without ‘the Resistance.’”