Locals displaced from southern Lebanese towns and cities on evacuation orders from Israel's military now fear Israel will occupy their homes permanently, or continue to expand its invasion.
Israel has marked a 'yellow line' in southern Lebanon it says marks a security buffer zone set up to protect its citizens from attacks by Hezbollah, but there have been reports of Israeli soldiers operating beyond the yellow line and Lebanon's Litani river.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he wanted troops to 'deepen and expand' their hold on Lebanese terrain, signaling a shift from limited border defense to a strategy of territorial control and deterrence.
Experts argue that this could evoke Israel's 1982 occupation, suggesting a potential reestablishment of a long-term security zone.
Lebanese residents are worried about whether they will ever be able to return to their homes, how long Israeli armed forces will stay in their country, and whether the army might even push further into Lebanon.
Israeli forces have not even gone that deep into Lebanon, counters Yossi Kuperwasser, head of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security and a former chief of the Israeli army's research division.
However, the people of southern Lebanon are right to be worried, he adds, because the more pressure that is put on Israel, the more Israel will reconsider that policy.
