BEIRUT, Lebanon — Fleeing in the middle of the night, sleeping without blankets in schools-turned-shelters, and struggling to find basic resources. These are the realities Fatima Mohammed Al Omar has told her four children they may have to get used to.
Displaced from their Beirut home by Israeli evacuation orders and airstrikes, the family is one of thousands in Lebanon who have no idea when they may be able to return.
Fears are growing in the country, already devastated by years of conflict, that Israel may be about to launch a broad invasion of Lebanon's south.
Al Omar and her children lived in the Beirut suburb of Dahieh, a stronghold for Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah that has been exchanging fire with Israel amid the wider conflict consuming the region since Feb. 28.
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But this week, the Israeli military launched new "limited" ground operations in the south as it massed more forces on the border.
Its sweeping orders for civilians to leave the area and long-stated ambition to remove Hezbollah's threat to northern Israel have convinced residents and analysts alike that a more significant push into Lebanese territory is imminent.
“We’ve taught our children to get used to this because we know we’ll often be at war — and this isn’t the first time,” Al Omar, 33, told NBC News from Beirut.
'There is no safety'
Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel on March 2 in support of Tehran, following the joint U.S.-Israeli assault on Iran that has sparked this regional war. Since then, Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,000 people in Lebanon and displaced more than 1 million, according to government figures.
In Beirut, many displaced families have been left living in cars or in tents, without access to washing and toilet facilities. Some say they have been denied rooms to rent due to fears they are connected to Hezbollah and could attract an Israeli attack.
Among the displaced is Hasan, who was forced from his home in the hilltop border town of Khiam along with his parents, two sisters and their children.
“Maybe in one hour I won’t be here,” said Hasan, who asked that his last name be withheld over concerns for his safety.
Hasan said he risked returning to his home almost every day since his area fell under evacuation orders from the Israeli military on March 2, just to make sure it’s still standing.
“There is no safety. Anything is possible,” he said.
Heavy fighting has been reported around Khiam, intensifying since the Israeli military announced Tuesday that troops from two divisions were conducting ground operations that it said were aimed at expanding the "forward defense area."
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that the IDF had been instructed to act to destroy “terror infrastructure” in Lebanese villages near the border to remove threats and prevent the return of Hezbollah to the area.
He compared the initiative to Israel's operations in some of the hardest-hit parts of Gaza, including Rafah, a southern city in the Palestinian enclave that Israeli forces largely reduced to rubble.
The days since have been marked by sweeping strikes and clashes, with the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, warning Wednesday of "heavy exchanges of fire, intensified air and ground activity, and increased presence of Israeli forces inside Lebanese territory."
Israeli forces have also begun striking and destroying bridges over the Litani River that connect the south to the rest of the country. Israel's military says they were being used by Hezbollah to smuggle weapons and move fighters.
'This is going forward'
“I think from Israel’s perspective this is an opportunity to really go after Hezbollah in a serious way and the calculation in Israel is that can only be done through an invasion,” Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at the London-based think tank Chatham House, said.
In a phone interview, she noted that Israel would likely seek to establish a "formal buffer zone" inside Lebanon, similar to those established in Gaza.
She warned that a wider ground assault felt "imminent," even if Gaza showed the limits of a military campaign in completely eliminating such a foe.
“Whether its days or weeks, this is going forward,” Vakil said.
Katz warned Monday that the hundreds of thousands of people who have evacuated their homes south of the Litani River won't be able to return until the "safety of residents" in northern Israel was "guaranteed."
That raised fears about how long a wider ground offensive — or potential occupation of the area — might last.
"It will become bigger," said Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies who previously served as the deputy director general and head of the Palestinian desk at the Israeli Strategic Affairs Ministry.
"Wider and bigger because we have to clear all the strip between the border and the Litani River," said Michael, who is also a member of the Misgav Institute for National Security & Zionist Strategy.
Fears of a long-term occupation have grown amid outright calls from some for Israel to take permanent control of the area south of the Litani River, citing the security advantages it would offer Israel.
An editorial in the Jerusalem Post last week cited David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, identifying the river as a natural northern border for the Jewish state.
With Israeli troops moving village to village and a more extensive operation looming, many in Lebanon have expressed frustrations with Hezbollah.
The Lebanese government vowed in 2024 to disarm the militant group as part of a U.N.-brokered effort to bring the fighting with Israel to an end.
Since then there has been little progress in disarming the Iran-backed group, though Lebanon’s government moved earlier this month to ban its military activity as it sought to show it had no desire for further conflict.
In a joint statement on Monday, leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom called for “meaningful engagement” between Israel and Lebanon to work toward a political solution as they expressed grave concerns over the escalating violence.
Bilal Y. Saab, the senior managing director of Washington-based advisory group TRENDS US, who worked as a senior adviser at the Pentagon under the first Trump administration, said he believed Israel was “trying to apply as much pressure as possible on the Lebanese government and of course, Hezbollah, to negotiate [and] disarm” the Iran proxy.
“If that doesn’t work, then they will consider mounting a large scale ground invasion,” said Saab, also an associate fellow with with Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.
Already, though, the country has been swept by scenes of desperation and displacement that have been overshadowed by events in Iran and the Gulf.
Cyril Bassil, the communications coordinator in Lebanon for the humanitarian agency CARE, said pregnant women were sleeping on the sidewalk and others on the beach or in parking lots.
Al Omar said she was determined to return to her home in Dahieh, or at least to what's left of it.
"Our houses have been destroyed," she said.
But "the south is our south," she added.
"Whatever happens, it’s our home."
Raf Sanchez and Mo Abbas reported from Beirut, and Chantal Da Silva from London.
