What's Israel doing in southern Lebanon?

0:00People in southern Lebanon are living through a war within a war. The war is, of course, the U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran. The war within Lebanon started with a series of strikes by the militant group Hezbollah. They launched rockets and drones from Lebanon into Israel, and Israel has responded with strikes in Lebanon. And with that, a conflict that has flared on and off for decades reignited. NPR met one man evacuating his home in a Beirut suburb during this round of strikes. He said he and his family were forced to flee during the last round of fighting just two years ago. The Lebanese health ministry says some 1 ,200 people have been killed by this latest war.

0:43Now Israel is mounting a widening invasion and ordering residents to leave. Nearly one million people have been displaced inside the country.

0:58The goal, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is to finally thwart the threat of invasion. Consider this. Israel's invasion of southern Lebanon is rapidly widening and could outlast the war in Iran. The people fleeing their homes don't know when or if they'll be allowed back.

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1:57It's Consider This from NPR. For a lot of people in Lebanon right now, home isn't home. It's a soccer stadium or a school or a tent. NPR's Lauren Frayer has been talking to some of these people whose lives have been upended. She has this story from southern Lebanon.

2:15Schools like this one in the southern town of Jazeen have been repurposed into shelters. Kids playing soccer, adults sitting on the curb, chain-smoking, scanning evacuation orders Israel puts out on social media. At first, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said his troops would accelerate the destruction of homes in southern Lebanon in accordance with a Gaza model. And take Lebanese territory up to the Litani River, which runs east-west, varying about 10 to 20 miles north of the current border. A few days later, though, Israel ordered residents to move 10 miles beyond that, north of another river called the Zahrani.

2:57Now Netanyahu's threat to widen this invasion without specifics is causing more confusion here. There's fear and exhaustion in everyone's eyes. People are fleeing north in waves with every new Israeli threat, every new strike, the school principal, Colette Sleem, tells me, as warplanes roar overhead.

3:23Her school filled up in the first wave, she says, and is now forced to turn people away. This has been one of the biggest and fastest displacements in Lebanon's history, affecting more than a million people, about a fifth of the population. Israel says it's targeting Hezbollah militants, who continue to have support among some of these displaced people and continue to fire thousands of rockets southward across the border. Israel is warning civilians in accordance with international law before bombing their towns. But Ramzi Chais, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, says when warnings are so broad covering huge swaths of the country.

4:02And they're not tied to a specific attack that's going to happen. they threatened to cause panic amongst the civilian population. For example, in the first day of the escalation, to over 50 villages, by the second day it was over 100 villages and towns.

4:20I meet Joseph Elias Issa in a shepherd's shack in the forest. He's fled the town of Kfar Khune just south of here. He huddles around a wood-burning stove, his head wrapped in a kaffiya. He says he was raised on that land, makes a living on that land. In his 56 years, he's lived through almost every war with Israel on that land. But now he wonders if he will ever be able to go home. This time, Israel's defense minister says what he calls a buffer zone will remain until the security of Israel's northern residence is guaranteed. Human Rights Watch's Kais says that's forced displacement to possible war crimes.

5:03You cannot tie people's return to their homes to some vague safety guarantee that you decide people must be allowed to return to their homes once the hostility cease. In his forest shack, Isa describes hearing airstrikes as he fled, driving his mules northward in a truck through destruction, uphill through the olive and citrus groves. From this hill, I can look down towards the Zaharani River. That's the zone where Israeli forces have ordered people to evacuate north of. And even beyond that, to the Litani, where Israel has said it wants to make a new border, below which it wants to take Lebanese territory.

5:50We're worried this region will no longer be Lebanese, says Paul Khresh, a municipal official in a village called Ein Ebel near the Israeli border. NPR reached him by phone. It was too dangerous to visit. He said he doesn't know whether to stay or go. The roads keep getting hit by airstrikes. But if the border is moved, he could end up under Israeli occupation. That's happened before. Israel reached the Litani River back in 1978. David El-Helu is the mayor of Jizim. He's old enough to recall how Israel occupied southern Lebanon through the 80s and 90s. They were at a checkpoint like two kilometers from here.

6:31Back then, Israel was battling Palestinian militants. Now it's Hezbollah. I ask him if he feels like history is repeating itself, and if he thinks Israel's no-go zone might expand northward into his town. Things can go wrong anytime. You can never be sure when it's going to end, which direction it's going to take. What's going to happen? Yeah, the fear is always there. Does this time feel different than the past? I don't know. I have a feeling that this time looks more serious. He and so many other people in this region tell us they think this time, this war may be different. NPR's Lauren Freyer in southern Lebanon.

7:12This episode was produced by Conor Donovan and Alejandra Marquez-Hanze with audio engineering by Ted Meebe. It was edited by Jerry Holmes, James Heider, and Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sammy Yenigan.

7:28It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Scott Detrow.