As U.S. And Iran Talk Truce, Israel Digs In For A ‘Forever War’

JERUSALEM, April 9 (Reuters) – Even USA and Iran Israel, trying to solidify the ceasefire, is seizing more territory from its neighbors in preparation for a long conflict in the Middle East.

Israel’s creation of “buffer zones” in Gaza, Syria and now Lebanon reflects a strategic shift that has left the country in a semi-permanent state of war after the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks, six Israeli military and defense officials told Reuters.

The approach also recognizes a reality that officials say has become increasingly clear after two and a half years of conflict: Iran’s religious leadership, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and militias in the region cannot be completely eliminated.

“Israel’s leaders have concluded that they are forever at war against enemies who need to be intimidated and even dispersed,” said Nathan Brown of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The United States and Iran agreed on Wednesday to pause the conflict while negotiating a broader end to the war that broke out on Feb. 28. Israel agreed to stop its attacks on Iran but said it would not stop its campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Hezbollah joined the war by firing rockets at Israel on March 2 and later launched a land invasion of southern Lebanon to clear the buffer zone up to the Litani River, a large swath of land that makes up about 8% of Lebanon’s territory.

Israel has ordered hundreds of thousands of residents in the area to flee and is in the early stages of demolishing homes in Shiite Muslim villages that Hezbollah believes are being used to store weapons or launch attacks.

The aim was to “clear” an area 5-10 km beyond the border and move Israeli border towns out of range of Hezbollah’s rocket-propelled grenade launches, said a senior military official, who requested anonymity to discuss security issues.

Israeli soldiers found evidence that nearly 90 percent of homes in some Lebanese villages near the border contained weapons or equipment linking them to Hezbollah, the official said.

According to the official, this means that the houses are considered enemy military positions that must be destroyed. Many southern Lebanese villages are located on hills, giving them a direct view of Israeli towns or army positions, according to the official.

According to retired Israeli brigadier general and former chief of military strategy Assaf Orion, the use of buffer zones represents a new security doctrine that “border communities cannot be protected from the border.”

“Israel is no longer waiting for the attack to come,” he added. “It sees an emerging threat and attacks it preemptively.”

Once the buffer zone against Hezbollah is secured, Israel will continue to control more than half of the territory in Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip following the ceasefire with Hamas in October.

Under the ceasefire, Israel is expected to withdraw from all of Gaza as Hamas disarms, but there is a possibility that this will happen in the near future. to look slim.

“We have established security belts far beyond our borders,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video message released from his office on March 31.

“In Gaza – more than half of the Strip’s territory. In Syria, from the summit of Mount Hermon to the Yarmuch River. In Lebanon – a vast buffer zone that blocks the threat of invasion and keeps anti-tank fire away from our communities.”

The Lebanon buffer zone plan has not yet been presented to Netanyahu’s cabinet, according to a cabinet member and two officials.

The Israeli military referred questions about buffer zones to Netanyahu’s office but did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

DEFENSE MINISTER PROMISES TO SETTLE VILLAGES

Israel has long held territory beyond its borders, including the occupied West Bank and Gaza, as well as the Golan Heights in southern Syria, captured in a 1967 regional war. Israel later annexed the Golan Heights in 1981.

Hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers currently live in the West Bank among nearly 3 million Palestinians who want to see the region as the heart of a future state.

For many displaced Lebanese and Palestinians, Israel’s seizure of their land and destruction of their villages signals further territorial expansion; This comment is also reinforced by the rhetoric of some far-right members of Netanyahu’s cabinet.

Netanyahu’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said in March that Israel should do so. expand the border up to the Litani River. He has made similar comments about Gaza, saying the territory should be annexed and settled by Israelis.

But another Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss operational planning, said Litani would not draw a new border. Instead, the buffer zone will be monitored by ground troops who carry out raids when necessary, without having to hold positions along the river.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz compared the destruction in Southern Lebanon to the scorched earth policy implemented against Hamas in Gaza, in which the population of entire cities decreased.

“Village houses adjacent to the border, which for all intents and purposes serve as outposts of Hezbollah, will be destroyed according to the model of Rafah and Khan Younis in Gaza to eliminate the treatment in Israeli cities,” he said in a statement on March 31.

Destruction of civilian property, including the use of property for military purposes, is largely illegal, said Eran Shamir-Borer, an international law expert at the Israel Democracy Institute.

“Mass demolition of houses in southern Lebanon without the basis of individual analysis would be illegal,” he added.

ISRAEL IS DOUBTABLE ABOUT LONG-TERM PEACE AGREEMENTS

Israeli leaders’ preference for a strategy based on the use of buffer zones follows decades of failed attempts to achieve long-term peace agreements with the Palestinians, Lebanon and Syria.

Israeli public opinion is deeply skeptical of peace agreements negotiated with the Palestinians. A 2025 survey by the Pew Research Center found that only 21% of Israelis believe Israel and a potential future Palestinian state can coexist peacefully.

A poll by the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies found that only 26 percent of Israelis believe the October ceasefire in Gaza will lead to many years of calm. The survey showed that most people expected a rapid resumption of hostilities.

Ofer Shelah, director of the research program at the institute, said that in the absence of a negotiated peace agreement with Lebanon, having a buffer zone in the north would prevent the threat of an attack or ground attack by Hezbollah forces.

But he said the increased personnel needed to patrol frontlines in Lebanon, Gaza, Syria and the occupied West Bank would eventually put great pressure on army forces.

“It would be better if we eventually go back to the international border and maintain mobile active defense across the border without having outposts there,” Shelah added.

(Reporting by Rami Ayyub Maayan Lubell Emily Rose; Editing by Pravin Char)