Levant in March 2026: the most important developments in security
In the Levant in March 2026, the main development was the war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel on 1 March, the first such attack since the November 2024 ceasefire. On 2 March Israel launched widespread airstrikes on Hezbollah targets across Lebanon, including Beirut, and issued evacuation warnings for dozens of areas in the south. Lebanon's Health Ministry counted at least 31 dead that day, 123 by 6 March and more than 1,000 by 20 March.
Beirut was struck repeatedly. Israel ordered evacuations in the southern suburbs on 5 and 6 March, and reports said hundreds of thousands of people fled. A strike on the Ramada hotel in central Beirut on 8 March killed at least four people, and strikes on 18 March killed at least 12. UN agencies said on 10 March that almost 700,000 people had been displaced and 84 children killed. Later strikes killed three journalists and nine paramedics on 28 March, and a UN peacekeeper died on 29 March.
Israel widened the fighting on the ground. On 16 March Israel began what it called a limited ground operation. On 24 March it announced plans to occupy the south of the country, and on 25 March it authorized the call-up of up to 400,000 reservists. Hezbollah rejected talks and disarmament, and on 26 March fired more than 100 rockets in one day at northern Israel; Israeli soldiers and civilians were killed, including two soldiers on 8 March.
The fighting reached beyond Lebanon. Jordan said 240 missiles and drones had been fired at it since the start of the wider war. Kuwait and the UAE reported dismantling networks linked to Hezbollah and Iran. The FBI said the Michigan synagogue attack of mid-March was an act of terrorism inspired by Hezbollah, and on 28 March the Houthis in Yemen claimed their first attack on Israel.
by WorldBrief & Maksim Micheliov | AI-generated summary
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