The Media Line: Litani River Again Sits at the Heart of War and Diplomacy 

Litani River Again Sits at the Heart of War and Diplomacy 

Southern Lebanon faces renewed destruction and displacement as Israel targets Hezbollah near a river that has shaped decades of conflict 

By Taylor Thomas / The Media Line 

[BEIRUT] The closer one gets to the Litani River, the lonelier it feels. The main highway connecting southern Lebanon with the rest of the country is nearly empty. Only a few ambulances speed along the road, but at a certain point, they turn off onto another route. Near the Litani, about 30 kilometers north of the border with Israel, the vehicle must stop because there is no way across. The Israeli army has destroyed all the bridges except one, leaving southern Lebanon even more isolated. This is not the first time Israeli forces have reached this river, which has long figured in the military and political history of Lebanon’s south. 

Israel’s interest in the Litani River has deep roots. In 1919, the World Zionist Organization proposed to the Paris Peace Conference that the Jewish National Home begin on the Mediterranean coast south of the Lebanese city of Sidon, include the foothills of the Lebanon Mountains up to the Litani River, and then follow the river eastward. 

That historical footnote is real, but it should not be treated as proof of Israel’s current war aims. Israeli officials say their goal today is to push Hezbollah north of the river and create conditions in which northern Israeli communities can live without rocket and anti-tank fire, in line with the longstanding but only partly enforced framework of UN Security Council Resolution 1701. The resolution calls for the area south of the Litani to be free of armed personnel and weapons not under the control of the Lebanese state. 

In March 1978, three years after the start of the Lebanese Civil War, Israel invaded southern Lebanon up to the Litani River in Operation Litani. The operation followed the Coastal Road massacre on March 11, 1978, when Fatah attackers who came from Lebanon hijacked a bus on Israel’s coastal highway and killed 38 Israeli civilians, including 13 children. The stated aim of Israel’s response was to strike Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) infrastructure in southern Lebanon and push those forces north of the Litani River. The campaign killed about 1,000 Lebanese and Palestinians, many of them civilians, and helped drive the PLO from parts of the south. 

Four years later, Israel launched what it called Operation Peace for Galilee, the campaign that came to be known as the First Lebanon War. Israeli leaders presented it as an effort to remove the PLO’s military presence from Lebanon’s border region and a response to the attempted assassination of Israel’s ambassador to the UK, Shlomo Argov, in London on June 3, 1982. 

At the outset, Israel said its goal was to push PLO forces about 40 kilometers north of the border, beyond the range of many of the weapons threatening northern Israeli communities. The war soon expanded far beyond that initial objective. Israeli forces advanced deep into Lebanon, occupied territory south of the Litani River, besieged Beirut for 10 weeks, and later established a security zone in southern Lebanon. The occupation lasted until 2000, when Israeli troops withdrew under pressure from Lebanese fighters, including Hezbollah, which had emerged during the occupation with Iranian backing. 

For many in southern Lebanon, the current war carries the feel of an old nightmare revisited. The renewed Israeli offensive against Hezbollah has once again emptied roads, battered civilian infrastructure, and pushed families north. At the same time, Hezbollah rocket, missile, and anti-tank attacks have kept pressure on northern Israel and driven the Israeli campaign’s stated goal of reducing the group’s ability to threaten border communities. Lebanese officials say the current conflict, which escalated on March 2, has killed more than 2,000 people and displaced about 1.2 million in Lebanon, while Israel says the campaign is intended to degrade Hezbollah’s military capacity and prevent further attacks on Israeli communities. 

“We are not going anywhere,” said Khodr, a paramedic driving a damaged ambulance. A fortnight ago, an Israeli attack on their center shattered almost all its windows and killed three of his colleagues. They have taped the holes with paper and plastic. “Now it cannot move wounded people, but we still use the ambulance to transport food, water and medicines to the villages at the border,” he told The Media Line. 

By trade, Khodr is a farmer, but in wartime he places himself at his country’s disposal. “If there was a state here, taking care of its citizens, Hezbollah would not exist, but there isn’t,” he said. “If someone comes and tries to take my land, of course I would go up in arms and defend it; who would do it if I don’t?” he asked. Now in his 60s, he works as a paramedic on a volunteer basis, without pay and at constant risk to his life. Lebanese health officials say Israeli attacks on the health care sector, including hospitals, ambulances, and primary health care centers, have killed at least 57 paramedics. “We are civilians, we do not carry any weapons,” Khodr shouted. 

Even with Israeli displacement orders in place, many southern Lebanese have chosen to remain in their homes. Some have nowhere else to go, as the northern part of the country is overwhelmed by internally displaced people. Israel says it has issued such orders in areas where it believes civilians are at risk from ongoing military operations and where Hezbollah operates, a claim that Lebanese critics and many residents reject or see as insufficient justification. “I cannot leave, because I need to continue working in order to feed my family,” said Mohammad, in one of the villages before the Litani River. His wife and two children are displaced in the north, but he cannot afford to join them. “I would go if they would give me money,” he told The Media Line, referring to the Israelis, since they are the ones asking him to leave. 

Even so, the diplomatic picture has shifted quickly. Israel and Lebanon held their first direct talks in decades in Washington on April 14, 2026, with US mediation. Lebanon is seeking a ceasefire, the return of displaced people, reconstruction, and an Israeli withdrawal, while Israel has centered the talks on Hezbollah’s disarmament and a broader security arrangement. Hezbollah has rejected the negotiations, and Israel’s Security Cabinet was set to discuss a possible ceasefire on April 15. No breakthrough has been announced, but the talks are the clearest sign in years that both sides are at least exploring a negotiated path to reduce or end the fighting. 

Meanwhile, life has not stopped around the Litani River. Spring is blooming. Small flowers ring one of the craters left by Israeli missiles on the highway. The river’s waters remain calm, oblivious to the fighting around them. For residents of the south, the question is no longer whether the Litani still matters in war. It plainly does. The harder question is whether it can also matter in peace.