Rescue workers search through the rubble of a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in central Beirut, Lebanon, March 18, 2026. Photo: AP
Israel isn’t just murdering civilians and destroying vital means of survival in Iran. It has seized on the war to launch a preplanned assault on Lebanon—not to “protect Israel,” but to implement the “Gaza Model,” in Lebanon.1
What does this mean? It means the total devastation, seizure, and occupation of Lebanese towns and territory south of the Litani River—some 8-10 percent of Lebanon’s territory. And it means incalculable death and devastation across all Lebanon.2
It means genocide. The situation is so urgent that “The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and Human Security has issued a "red flag alert" for Israel in Lebanon.
Far fetched? Listen to what Israeli officials and media figures are saying:
One member of Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich’s party, urged: “We must conquer territory in southern Lebanon, destroy the villages there and annex the territory to the state of Israel,” Ben Reiff reports in an important exposure in the Guardian.
Former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, calls for the army “to strike and eliminate everything that’s in Dahiyeh, Baalbek, Tyre, Sidon, Nabatieh (all major Lebanese cities), everywhere.”
“We need to destroy the country in terms of infrastructure,” a commentator on Channel 14, implores. “There’s no more civilian infrastructure in Lebanon.”
This Towering War Crime Is Unfolding NOW
Map of Israeli attacks on Lebanon from March 2 to March 16, 2026. Map: AJLABS; Data source: Armed Conflict Location & Event Data
These aren’t empty statements. The assault on Lebanon has been underway since March 2, a few days after the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran. Since then, Israel has dropped over 2,200 bombs on Lebanon—hitting villages in the south and densely populated Beirut, Lebanon’s capital. So far over 1,000 Lebanese have been killed, and over 2,500 wounded.
One UN Human Rights official warns, “In many instances, Israeli airstrikes have destroyed entire residential buildings in dense urban environments, with multiple members of the same family, including women and children, often killed together.”3
Now Israel is escalating. Its army has “issued blanket evacuation orders covering a vast area in the country’s south, displacing over a million people from their homes, the Guardian reports. On March 16, it announced the launching of a ground invasion, and clashes with Hezbollah are being reported in southern Lebanon.
This past week Israel announced the mobilization of “hundreds of thousands of reservists in order to implement ‘the Gaza model, but in Lebanon.’” And this weekend, Israel’s defense minister ordered the military to intensify its demolitions of bridges and buildings in south Lebanon.
This is yet another towering Israeli war crime, backed and enabled by the U.S!
We’ve seen what the “Gaza Model” has meant for Gaza. Now is the time for people in this country and around the world to rise in protest and resistance to the criminal wars being waged by the U.S. and Israel against Iran, and Lebanon!