IDF expands Lebanon evacuation zone north to Zahrani River — 25 miles from border, ground invasion imminent

Israel has expanded its Lebanon evacuation zone northward from the Litani River to the Zahrani River — approximately 25 miles from the Israeli border — Sky News correspondent Cordelia Lynch reported from inside the evacuation zone. The Zahrani River line is approximately 10 miles north of the Litani River, encompassing a significantly larger portion of south Lebanon including the coastal city of Tyre and surrounding towns. The expansion of the evacuation zone is consistent with Israeli doctrine: IDF typically establishes evacuation corridors ahead of ground operations to limit civilian casualties and remove the Hezbollah argument that civilians are being endangered by their operations. The Zahrani River line would provide a ground corridor for the Lebanon offensive Israel has been preparing on the scale of 2006 — described as the largest since the Second Lebanon War. More than 800 people have been killed in Lebanon during the conflict — including 14 medical workers killed in a single IDF strike on March 14 — and hundreds of thousands have been displaced. Hezbollah fighters and supporters in the evacuation zone have largely declined to leave, with community leaders framing the conflict as a just war and dismissing allegations that Hezbollah is dragging Lebanon into an unwanted war. The IDF has already designated a Litani River seizure as a core objective in the Lebanon phase. The Zahrani expansion suggests the military objective may have grown to encompass a larger buffer zone — either to create a permanent security buffer or to support deeper ground operations targeting Hezbollah command infrastructure north of the Litani.