CrossFireArarbia

Can Israel Create A Lebanese Buffer Zone?

CrossFireArabia
March 25, 2026

By Imad Rizk

Since last Wednesday, the Israeli army has continued targeting the network of roads and bridges that link Lebanon to its south. In addition to pressuring the Lebanese government to make concessions in Lebanon and possibly beyond, the Israeli army claimed that targeting the Qasmiyeh bridge and other bridges is intended to prevent the transfer of military supplies to southern Lebanon. However, military experts questioned this justification, noting that Israeli aircraft maintain intense air dominance over the routes leading to the south, which undermines the credibility of this claim. Sources believe that targeting infrastructure, especially bridges and roads, aims to isolate the southern region in preparation for occupying it and turning it into a “buffer zone”.

After the 1982 invasion, Israel maintained a buffer zone in southern Lebanon for 15 years. It was meant to prevent attacks but instead created local resistance and required constant military presence, ending with a unilateral Israeli withdrawal in 2000.

Buffer zones as a military solution in the region were tested between 1985 and 2000. In the 2006 Lebanon War, Israel avoided re-occupying Lebanon, relying instead on air power and UN peacekeepers (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon). Now, in 2026, Israel is returning to buffer zone thinking. Current discussions of a 10-15 km buffer zone show that Israel is returning to a doctrine it once abandoned as distancing itself from its enemy is more important than before.

Meanwhile, air raids continue to target the Lebanese capital, Beirut, and its southern suburbs. Residential areas and neighborhoods near Beirut and in the coastal city of Sidon are also being targeted under the pretext of assassinating figures and cadres linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

On the southern front, the Israeli army has been facing major difficulties in advancing and consolidating its positions since March 2. Hezbollah in Lebanon targeted Israeli troops at dozens of locations.

Ground combat tactics against the Israeli ground maneuver

Hezbollah carried out strikes against concentrations of soldiers and vehicles in different border villages. These attacks were carried out using rockets and artillery shells.

Operations extended beyond the border line, where Hezbollah support units targeted military positions and fixed barracks, as well as newly established sites in Jabal al-Bat and Nimer al-Jamal. Strikes also repeatedly hit the Avivim barracks, as well as Ramot Naftali, Branit, Hounin, Nahal Gershom base, and the Meron Air Surveillance Base.

Both Hezbollah and the Israeli army also carried out psychological and media operations associated with the ground maneuver, including threats, intimidation, low-altitude aircraft flights, and air raids conducted at night or at dawn. Settlers were also used in messaging to suggest that failure to negotiate would expose Lebanon to destruction similar to Gaza, or to incite Lebanese public opinion against a particular sectarian group and the environment that supports confrontation with Israel.

Overall assessment

In summary, the ongoing confrontation since March 2 reveals a gap between Israeli rhetoric and action. Despite statements about deploying three full military divisions, these forces rely heavily on air strikes to flush out Hezbollah fighters positioned inside villages and in the surrounding wooded terrain.

Hezbollah initially responded by targeting troop concentrations with rockets from outside the area south of the Litani River in the early days, and also struck D-9 bulldozers from areas far from the front line, while its special units advanced and seized forward positions. There was also discussion of advances along the Khiam-Marjayoun axis, with the understanding that the advance aimed to encircle the city of Nabatieh in the south and push through the Sahmar axis toward an unspecified town to reach Lake Qaraoun, similar to what Israel did on the Syrian front when it took control of the Yarmouk basin.

A notable development was the use of explosive drones similar to tactics used in Ukraine. On Friday, armed drones were used to strike a rear-area position on the Israeli side. This was considered the second major tactical surprise to enter the battlefield after the previous confrontation in 2024 during the “66-day battle.”

Israeli attacks on Iran and the entry of Iranian missiles targeting Israeli troop concentrations and fortifications around the town of Khiam suggest that the linkage of fronts — from southern Lebanon to Iraq and Iran — indicates that the Khatam al-Anbiya headquarters in Iran is directing a confrontation against Israeli destabilization and US military presence across a theater stretching from the eastern Mediterranean to the Gulf.

The author is the director of the Institute for Strategic and Communication Studies in Lebanon (Isticharia-ISCS). Anadolu

Opinion

Hamlet in The White House!

Saleem Ayoub Quna
March 24, 2026

By Saleem Ayoub Quna

There must be something very unusual going on in the head of the 47th President of the US, to the degree that it could be detrimental to himself, to his own people and to the rest of the world, as we know it since the end of WWII; a kind of a personalized erratic approach to reality, based exclusively, on the notion of profit and loss, of take not give, especially in monetary terms.

From his younger age, Mr. Trump was not just any ordinary successful business man who would tolerate a ceiling for his ambitions. He was an over-ambitious entrepreneur with multi-branched interests. As a leading real-estate developer, thriving in a culture built on competition and affluence in all aspects of life, sometimes at the expense of choosing between right and wrong, upholding justice, tolerance versus other ethnic groups, and adherence to basic moral standards, as preached by different schools of philosophy and ideology, Trump ventured into all sorts of domains such as wrestling, movies, TV shows,
casinos, resort hotels and so forth. He was an unstoppable adventurer with strongly-rooted instinct to win every bet he made, until a more challenging idea would click in his mind!

Mr. Trump was lured to politics from the early days of 1980s, but he never made a serious move until four decades or so later. There are some reasons for that long hold of course, but one consideration that must have played a decisive role, had to do with his awareness that working in politics would not make him richer!

But as time goes by, one gets older, wiser and less adventurous! Trump reached this stage during the second decade of the 21st century; He felt he is getting older and that made him boring and bored at the
same time! So one night, his nemesis pays him a sudden call and immediately he bows to it. As a result he puts on his new mantel as the Supreme Commander of the free world for one term (2017-2021) which
ends with a historical unprecedented incursion of the Capitol by his supporters, on the grounds that his winning opponent, Joe Biden, rigged the elections!

Four years later it’s the comeback of the wounded warrior! This time Trump has learned many important lessons of how to be a Supreme Commander, while openly tampering with the idea of a third term in
2028! Trump’s first move was to fortify his newly reclaimed fortress with completely obedient entourage, so he could release all his non-depletable genius and energy reserve.

Now it’s time for closing some old accounts; it’s time to play! Within days in office, Trump expresses his wish to welcome Canada to his empire as its 51 st state. Then he changes the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, because it is more beautiful! Later he targets US monuments such as the Kennedy Center, the International Airport in Virginia and Pennsylvania Station for the same purpose!

Another morning he wakes up to tell the world that the US should take over Greenland, one way or the other. While the ‘Venezuela’ over-night expedition was seen by many, including Trump himself, as a clip from an animated action movie, where the good cops with their IA run sophisticated machinery and technology, apprehends a notorious out-of-law gangster and flies him to jail!

Trump’s latest games which was clumsily suspended last year in June, is the same one, unfolding before our eyes these days with Iran. The latest update on this dangerous game was Trump’s devious
attempt to curb the unexpected financial repercussions in the world oil market and their consequent direct impact on his domestic rating versus the Democrats vying for midterm elections this coming
November.

For Trump this would be a red line that no one is allowed to tamper with. This is one of the bet games which he cannot lose: Who will control the House and the Senate next November? It is that kind of
situation that could make him quote Hamlet the Prince of Denmark, the legendary character portrayed by Shakespeare when he shouted; “To be, or not to be, that is the question”!

Hamlet was addressing a ghost!

News

Iran Struck Israel With 1200 Missiles Since 28 February

CrossFireArabia
March 20, 2026

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported, Friday, that Tehran and Hezbollah fired approximately 1,200 rockets at Israel in retaliation for Tel Aviv’s aggression against both Iran and Lebanon.

Since February 28, Israel and the United States conducted airstrikes against Iran, killing at least 1,332 people, including 202 children, 223 women, and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, in addition to injuring more than 15,000 and causing widespread destruction.

Since March 2, Israel has also been waging an offensive against Lebanon, resulting in 1,001 deaths, 2,584 injuries, and 1,049,328 displaced persons, according to Lebanese authorities.

The newspaper stated Iran increased its use of cluster munitions in the third week of the war, with 15 of these rockets successfully dispersing bombs within Israeli airspace, mostly in the central part of the country.

It added: “In total, over the past 20 days, Iran has launched 26 cluster munitions, causing damage to at least 150 sites, including this week two train and bus stations and three parked planes at Ben Gurion Airport.”

Iran has been bombarding Israel with at least 10 missiles a day, totaling approximately 400 missiles, while the Israeli army said that about 340 missiles have been fired at Israel, according to the newspaper.

It added that the army refuses to provide the exact number of missiles, but reported earlier this week that during the first 15 days, Iran launched about 340 missiles, and “since then, no updated data has been provided.”

Haaretz stated that “since Hezbollah joined the war, it has attacked Israel, especially its north, with about 800 missiles in dozens of attacks daily.”

The US-Israeli aggression against Iran resulted in at least 1,332 deaths, including 202 children, 223 women, and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, in addition to more than 15,000 injuries and widespread destruction.

Meanwhile, the response from Tehran and its ally Hezbollah in Israel left at least 17 dead and 4,099 wounded, in addition to Iranian attacks that killed 13 US service members and injured 200.

Iran is being subjected to aggression despite making progress in negotiations with the United States regarding its nuclear program. This is the second time Israel has reneged on the negotiating table; the first time was the outbreak of the June 2015 war as reported by Anadolu.

News

Eid Mubarak Gaza

CrossFireArabia
March 20, 2026

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are marking the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, the first since the so-called ceasefire began, amid widespread suffering and destruction following two years of Israeli genocide.

Across the enclave, Palestinians performed Eid prayers amid the rubble, in a powerful act of steadfastness and resilience, and children tried to find moments of joy.

Uncategorized

US-Israel Drags The World Into a Global Crisis

CrossFireArabia
March 20, 2026

By Abdel Bari Atwan

By bombing Iran’s Pars gas field, the world’s largest with missiles, and with a green light from President Donald Trump, the Israeli occupation state and its right-wing ruling clique is revealing a major, diabolical plan. Its goal is to drag the world into a massive economic crisis on all levels, starting with an energy crisis that may be even more dangerous than the Arab oil embargo of 1973, in solidarity with Egypt and Syria, leading to a wider global conflict.

This Israeli bombing of Iran’s South Pars gas field, which came after the third week of the war and the failure of the US-Israeli alliance to topple the Iranian regime, constitutes the most significant breach of red lines and will have very serious and dangerous consequences in this war. Gas prices have already risen by 36 percent today, while the price of a barrel of oil has reached $118 so far. These figures may triple, if not more, if Iran retaliates by bombing energy facilities in the Gulf, especially in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and Kuwait. It is an option that is not out of the question, given the threats issued by the new leadership, which states that the “oil and gas sites in neighboring countries have become direct and legitimate targets after the bombing of the South Pars field.”

***

By taking this step—bombing the South Pars gas field facilities—the Israeli army has shifted the conflict from a realm of threatening maritime routes, primarily the Strait of Hormuz, to targeting production infrastructure. This is a very dangerous shift if it escalates and will lead to an expansion of the scope of this war and its objectives and reflects the despair and frustration Israel is experiencing due to its failure to achieve its objectives in waging this war, and rallying the western world behind Trump’s leadership whilst trapping it in the Iranian snare, and seeking to eliminate the existential threat to its survival, namely Iran and the resistance factions it supports.

Iran managed this war with unprecedented political and military acumen. The developments of the first three weeks demonstrated that it was well-prepared for all eventualities according to a well-devised plan. The most prominent evidence of this was its deception of the occupying state and its generals when it used older-generation missiles to absorb and deplete Israel’s air defenses. Then, it delivered the decisive blow by bombarding major occupied Palestinian cities with advanced, hypersonic cluster missiles, turning Tel Aviv, Haifa, Acre, and Safed into ghost towns.

***

The “decapitation” theory, which Israel used as a successful formula for regime change and collapse, exemplified by the assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was thwarted by Iranian ingenuity, yielding the opposite results. The Iranian regime emerged stronger than before the assassination war, now led by a young figurehead, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, the new Supreme Leader. His first decree was to refuse negotiations with the US to halt the killings unless it fully submitted to Iranian demands, including surrender, a cessation of hostilities, and the payment of reparations.

The lack of response from NATO, and indeed from not a single country Trump appealed to for intervention and the deployment of warships to forcibly reopen the Strait of Hormuz—from China to Australia—underscores his and his Israeli allies’ early defeat in this war and signals the beginning of the countdown to his removal from power, and perhaps even his trial as a war criminal. Time will tell.

This op/ed by the the Chief Editor of Al Rai Al Youm was translated from Arabic and reprinted in crossfirearabia.com.