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Israel-Lebanon in maps: Tracking the conflict with Hezbollah and Iran Israel-Lebanon in maps: Tracking the conflict with Hezbollah and Iran
(about 1 month later)
Israel has invaded southern Lebanon in a dramatic escalation of its conflict with Hezbollah. A ceasefire has come into effect between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon after a deal was agreed to end 13 months of fighting.
The Israeli ground operation began on 30 September, days after an air strike killed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Iran-backed armed group. In October 2023, Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel in support of its ally Hamas in Gaza and Israel launched retaliatory air strikes in Lebanon.
Hezbollah has fired rockets into northern Israel as Lebanon has endured weeks of aerial bombardment that Lebanese authorities say has killed more than 2,300 people and forced more than 1.2m to flee their homes. The conflict escalated in late September 2024, when Israel launched an intense air campaign and ground invasion of southern Lebanon.
Israel has a decades-long history of conflict with Hezbollah but the war in Gaza has sparked a year of deadly cross-border fighting between them. In Lebanon, more than 3,800 people have been killed since October 2023, according to Lebanese authorities, with one million people forced to flee their homes.
We will be continually updating maps in this page to help explain the conflict. On the Israeli side, at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians have been killed, while 60,000 people have been displaced, Israeli authorities say.
Follow live updates on this storyFollow live updates on this story
Analysis: Why has America failed to broker a ceasefire? What we know about Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire deal
Analysis: What will it take to end the conflict? Questions over Hezbollah's future after ceasefire
BBC Verify examines footage revealing scale of damage in Lebanon Israeli anger at 'irresponsible and hasty' ceasefire
Watch: How do young Palestinians and Israelis see their future? Watch: People in Israel and Lebanon react to ceasefire deal
Map: Where is Lebanon?Map: Where is Lebanon?
Lebanon is a small country with a population of about 5.5 million people, which borders Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. It is about 170km (105 miles) away from Cyprus.Lebanon is a small country with a population of about 5.5 million people, which borders Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. It is about 170km (105 miles) away from Cyprus.
Where is the Israeli advance? What has been agreed in the ceasefire?
Israeli troops and tanks that had gathered close to the border crossed into Lebanon on 1 October. Under the terms of the ceasefire, Hezbollah must end its armed presence in the area of southern Lebanon between the Blue Line - the unofficial border between Lebanon and Israel - and the Litani River, about 30km (20 miles) to the north.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said it is carrying out "limited, localised, and targeted ground raids" in southern Lebanon to dismantle what it calls Hezbollah's “terrorist infrastructure”. Over the next 60 days, Israel will gradually withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon and thousands of Lebanese army troops will move into the vacated positions in parallel, the agreement says.
Israeli tanks at an undisclosed location in northern Israel last week The Lebanese army will ensure that Hezbollah's infrastructure or weaponry is removed and that it cannot be rebuilt, according to a senior US official.
Israeli troops are fighting directly with Hezbollah fighters on the ground. Under UN Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the last war in 2006, the area south of the Litani should be free of any armed personnel or weapons other than those of the Lebanese state and the UN peacekeeping force (Unifil). However, both sides claimed violations of the resolution.
Several Israeli soldiers have been killed in mortar attacks and ambushes by Hezbollah during operations in southern Lebanon aimed at “eliminating terrorists”, according to the IDF. The US and France will join the existing tripartite mechanism, involving Unifil, Lebanon and Israel, which will be charged with monitoring violations, the senior US official said.
Hezbollah said its fighters had clashed with Israeli forces in Qouzah and Aita al-Shaab - Lebanese villages close to the border with Israel. It also says it has fired rockets targeting Israeli personnel between Markaba and Odaisseh. The agreement also says that “these commitments do not preclude either Israel or Lebanon from exercising their inherent right of self-defence, consistent with international law”. Israel’s prime minister insisted it would “maintain full freedom of military action” to attack Hezbollah if it violated the agreement.
A ground operation in southern Lebanon comes with many risks for Israeli forces. Unlike the flat coastal plains of Gaza, southern Lebanon has rolling hills and some mountainous terrain that makes it difficult for tanks to move easily without fear of being ambushed. Tens of thousands of Lebanese civilians displaced by the war have started returning to their homes in the south, despite being warned by the Israeli military that it was not safe to return to areas where its soldiers were still deployed.
Hezbollah is also thought to have a network of tunnels in the region, with the group having been preparing for another full-scale conflict with Israel since the 34-day war in 2006. Where were Israel's ground operations?
As part of its invasion of southern Lebanon, the IDF has ordered people living in some villages to evacuate, telling those remaining to leave their homes and "immediately head to the north of the Awali River" – which meets the coast about 50km (30 miles) from the border with Israel. Israel launched its ground invasion of southern Lebanon on the night of 30 September 2024, with troops and tanks crossing the border in several locations.
At first the evacuation orders were concentrated in the south east of Lebanon, but on 17 October three were issued for villages in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa region. Warnings like these, which Israel issues regularly, usually precede Israeli airstrikes. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was carrying out "limited, localised, and targeted ground raids" to dismantle what it called Hezbollah's “terrorist infrastructure”.
Lebanese civilians have also been warned by the IDF not to use vehicles to travel south across the Litani River, located about 30km (20 miles) north of the border. Analysis by experts at the Institute for the Study of War suggests Israeli ground operations were limited to areas within a few kilometres of the border, as shown in the map below.
About a million people lived in southern Lebanon before the conflict escalated almost a year ago. The IDF warned people living in dozens of towns and villages in southern Lebanon to leave their homes and head north of the Awali River, which meets the coast about 50km (30 miles) from the border with Israel.
Tens of thousands have been fleeing north since Israeli air strikes in the region intensified in late September. The main route for civilians trying to leave the south is the coastal road that runs the length of the country - but areas along that route have been hit by air strikes. Lebanese civilians were also told by the IDF not to use vehicles to travel south of the Litani River.
How Israel-Hezbollah conflict escalated to a ground invasion What did Israel’s air strikes target?
What have Israel’s air strikes targeted? The IDF carried out air strikes in Lebanon throughout the conflict.
Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon came after nearly two weeks of intense air strikes that Israel's military says target Hezbollah in the south of the country, the eastern Bekaa Valley and the southern suburbs of Beirut. But it sharply escalated the air campaign on 23 September 2024, when it launched an operation targeting what it said were Hezbollah infrastructure sites and weapons in all areas of the country where the group has a strong presence.
Israel says it is hitting Hezbollah sites, including weapons stores and ammunition dumps, but Lebanese officials say more than 100 women and children have been killed. However, Lebanese authorities say more than 700 women and 200 children have been killed since the start of the conflict, as well as another 200 people working in the country's health sector.
The majority of the rockets recently fired by Hezbollah have targeted northern areas of Israel. But some rockets have reached further south and damaged homes near the coastal city of Haifa. As the chart below shows, the intensity of the strikes stepped up significantly in the weeks before the Israeli ground invasion in late September and peaked in October.
There has been almost a year of cross-border hostilities between Israel's forces and Hezbollah, sparked by the war in Gaza. The majority of Israeli strikes were in southern Lebanon, where about a million people lived before the conflict escalated over a year ago.
Hezbollah has fired thousands of rockets at northern Israel during that time, forcing some Israelis living there to flee south, while the IDF has launched air strikes and artillery fire against Hezbollah positions in Lebanon. The map below - using analysis of satellite data by Corey Scher of CUNY Graduate Center and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University - shows which areas of Lebanon sustained the most concentrated damage during the conflict.
As the chart below shows, the number of weekly Israeli attacks on Lebanon more than tripled in the week before the IDF launched its ground invasion. The number of Hezbollah attacks, while small in comparison, also increased in the same week. As the following map shows, Beirut was also heavily targeted by Israeli air strikes.
Israel has intensified strikes on Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, in recent days. There were some strikes close to central Beirut but the majority of them hit the southern suburbs of the city - densely populated areas that were home to hundreds of thousands of civilians.
The majority of the strikes have hit the southern suburbs of the city, densely populated areas that are home to thousands of civilians. These areas, close to the international airport, have a strong Hezbollah presence and it was a series of strikes on buildings there that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on 27 September.
These areas, close to the international airport, also have a strong Hezbollah presence and a series of Israeli strikes on buildings there killed Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah on 27 September. There were several dozens air strikes in the southern suburbs and central Beirut on 26 November hours before the ceasefire deal was agreed.
There have also been Israeli aerial attacks on locations closer to the centre of the city. The Lebanese authorities said 22 people were killed when Israeli strikes hit two residential buildings in Nweiri and Basta on 10 October. How does this fit in with wider Middle East conflict?
The map below - using analysis of satellite data by Corey Scher of CUNY Graduate Center and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University - shows which areas have sustained concentrated damage - including Dahieh in Beirut and areas along the border with Israel. Israel has a decades-long history of conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon but it is just one of the fronts that it is currently engaged in hostilities.
What will Israel do next? The others include armed forces and non-state armed groups in several countries in the Middle East, including Iran, Syria and Iran-backed groups operating in Gaza, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
Israel is now engaged in hostilities with armed forces and non-state armed groups in several countries in the Middle East, including Iran, Syria and Iran-backed groups operating in Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
Iran's ballistic missile attack against Israel on 1 October was the latest major escalation.
What happens next is unclear, but Israel has vowed to respond, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu describing the attack as "a big mistake" that Iran "will pay for".
How could Israel respond, and what might Iran do then?