JERUSALEM, March 16 (Xinhua) -- The Israel Defense Forces announced Monday that it had begun "limited and targeted ground operations" against key Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon.

Photo taken with a mobile phone on March 9, 2026 shows the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon. (Photo: Xinhua)

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed the operation, saying it was intended "to remove threats and protect the residents of the north."

Security sources and eyewitnesses reported fierce clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters along multiple border axes. Israeli forces have been advancing toward the Blue Line, the UN-demarcated boundary between Israel and Lebanon, establishing positions in towns and strategic points throughout the border region.

The escalation is part of a broader widening of the Middle East conflict that began on Feb. 28 with a U.S.-Israeli air campaign against Iran. Hezbollah, which controls much of southern Lebanon and is a key Iranian ally, has regularly exchanged rocket and drone fire with Israeli forces since renewing attacks on March 2, two days after the killing of Iran's former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in a U.S.-Israeli strike.

Hezbollah fighters have fortified their positions and pushed back against Israeli advances, producing some of the fiercest border clashes since a fragile ceasefire ended a previous year-long war in late 2024. That ceasefire had halted wide-ranging hostilities that displaced hundreds of thousands of people and caused significant infrastructure damage on both sides.