Lebanon is reeling after one of the deadliest nights of the war, with at least 270 people killed and 798 injured as a sweeping wave of Israeli airstrikes coincided with the opening phase of a full‑scale ground invasion into the country’s south, medical and security sources say.

Jets and drones pounded targets from the outskirts of Beirut to Tyre, Nabatieh and the Bekaa Valley, hitting what the IDF calls Hezbollah command centres, rocket launch sites and weapons depots. But rescue teams picking through collapsed homes, shops and apartment blocks are warning that civilians make up a grim share of the dead. Hospitals have overflowed; some are treating patients in corridors and car parks.

At first light, columns of Israeli armour and infantry pushed several kilometres beyond the border, seizing hilltops and villages that commanders describe as “launch pads” for rocket fire into northern Israel. Footage from the frontier shows tanks rolling past shattered houses as terrified families flee north with whatever they can carry.

Israel insists the operation is a “measured campaign” to dismantle Hezbollah’s military machine and create a buffer that keeps rockets out of range of Galilee communities. Lebanese officials call it an “invasion in all but name,” warning that the scale of casualties and destruction risks igniting a wider regional firestorm.

As smoke still curls over southern towns and Beirut’s southern suburbs brace for more strikes, the question gripping chancelleries and streets alike is stark: is this Israel’s final push to break Hezbollah—or the moment Lebanon is dragged into yet another long, ruinous war the region cannot afford?