ISRAELI leaders are continuing to press ahead with plans for a full-scale invasion and occupation of southern Lebanon.

Israel says it needs to establish a zone of control in the “depopulated” south to shield its own northern communities.

Many experts have said that the intended open-ended displacement of over a million people would constitute ethnic cleansing, a war crime under international law.

On Thursday, the Israeli military said it had sent a third division across the border into Lebanon.

Defence Minister Israel Katz said this week that his country’s military would create a “security zone” up to the Litani river, about 20 miles from the border in some places. 

He said troops would destroy homes, which he claimed were being used by militants, and that residents would not return until northern Israel was safe.

The campaign would mirror the one in Gaza, Mr Katz said on Tuesday. 

Israeli forces flattened and ethnically cleansed the eastern half of the Palestinian territory and Israel has said it won’t withdraw until Hamas disarms as part of a ceasefire deal that the country has largely ignored.

“We have ordered an acceleration in the destruction of Lebanese homes in contact-line villages to neutralise threats to Israeli communities, in accordance with the model of Beit Hanoun and Rafah in Gaza,” Mr Katz said, referring to border towns that were largely obliterated by Israeli forces.

After a 2024 ceasefire halted Israel’s last war with Hezbollah, Israeli forces gradually withdrew from southern Lebanon, except for five strategic hilltops along the border.

Many Lebanese returned to find homes, infrastructure and some entire villages destroyed. 

Israel said it had dismantled Hezbollah infrastructure and was continuing to strike what it said were resistance targets on a near-daily basis after the truce.

Hezbollah resumed its attacks after Israel and the United States launched their illegal and unprovoked war against Iran on February 28, accusing Israel of having repeatedly violated the ceasefire.