AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Israeli's campaign of air strikes continues in Lebanon. This morning, Israel announced it had killed another top official of Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group there. Israel's assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, who led Hezbollah for more than 30 years, has been met with mixed reactions in the region. In Israel, there have been celebrations. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warns his nation of serious challenges ahead. NPR's Kat Lonsdorf is in Haifa in northern Israel and joins us now. Good morning.
KAT LONSDORF, BYLINE: Hey, good morning.
RASCOE: Kat, what's the latest there?
LONSDORF: So Israel has been striking not just southern Lebanon overnight and this morning, but also southern Beirut again. That's the area they've been hitting repeatedly in the past few days where Nasrallah and several other senior Hezbollah officials have been killed. These strikes have been fairly constant, especially in southern Lebanon, over the past week or so. They've killed more than 700 people, wounded thousands more, and also caused massive displacement of hundreds of thousands of people in Lebanon. And we've been hearing about that from our colleagues on the other side of the border. The situation is quite desperate there for a lot of people. Here in Israel, people are bracing for a potential retaliation, either by Hezbollah or Iran or another one of the Iranian-backed groups in the region. Netanyahu returned to Israel earlier than expected from his time at the United Nations last night, and in a speech, he said this.
PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: (Non-English language spoken).
LONSDORF: He said, quote, "The work is not yet complete. In the coming days, we will face significant challenges." Israel has now issued new restrictions, banning large gatherings for most of the country, and the Israeli military has called up more reservists to the north as it prepares for a ground invasion into southern Lebanon.
RASCOE: A ground invasion - tell us more about that. What are you hearing about how real that possibility might be?
LONSDORF: The idea behind this ground invasion would be to push Hezbollah back from the border with Israel, to create what Israel calls a, quote, "buffer zone" of several miles. Israeli officials, including Netanyahu and the other top leaders of the military, have been making it clear that ground invasion is a real possibility. This is something they've been talking about for months here, but now we seem to be seeing more signs that it could be imminent. There's troops amassing at the borders, tanks and other military equipment are being sent up, and in the past few days, several brigades worth of reserves have been called up for action to report in the north up here. And I should say, obviously, Israel has been fighting another war in Gaza for nearly a year now. Its reserves are exhausted. Starting another major war with a big ground invasion is going to strain an already strained system.
RASCOE: You've been in Haifa in northern Israel bordering south Lebanon for the past few days. What is life like there with this escalation intentions?
LONSDORF: Well, it's relatively calm, although I think people are, of course, wondering what might happen next. You know, in recent days, Hezbollah has been firing dozens of rockets a day toward northern Israel, including toward here in Haifa. So there have been sirens and interceptions overhead as Israel's aerial defense system takes a majority of them out. These scenes have become relatively normal here after nearly a year of this kind of thing. And people here generally want this to stop, which most people I've talked to believe can only really happen with an escalation of Israel's action in Lebanon against Hezbollah, not with a cease-fire. There are tens of thousands of displaced Israelis from the north, from further north than here. The hotel I'm staying in right now here in Haifa is full of them, for example. And they haven't been able to go home in almost a year. And a lot of them feel that the only way they'll feel safe to go back home is if Israel invades southern Lebanon and pushes Hezbollah back away from its border, like I was talking about. You know, of course, an invasion like that would mean that the thousands and thousands of displaced people in Lebanon couldn't go home.
RASCOE: That's NPR'S Kat Lonsdorf in Haifa, northern Israel. Thank you so much for joining us.
LONSDORF: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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