LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Coming up, we'll hear from former President Joe Biden's national security adviser on how the Trump administration is approaching the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. But first, the front in that war is widening in Lebanon. Last night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he's expanding his invasion of that country.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The toll inside Lebanon is devastating. Officials say well over a million people have been displaced. More than 1,200 people have been killed, including, just this weekend alone, three journalists, 10 paramedics and a U.N. peacekeeper.
FADEL: NPR's Lauren Frayer has just returned from southern Lebanon and joins us now in Beirut. Good morning, Lauren.
LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: Good morning, Leila.
FADEL: So where are you returning from exactly, and what did you see and hear?
FRAYER: Frightened civilians fleeing Israeli bombardment, warplanes constantly overhead, sonic booms, but also resilience. We went to a Palm Sunday procession in the rain. I was in the southern town of Jezzine, in the mountains. Here's what it sounded like at a school converted into a shelter for the displaced.
(CROSSTALK)
COLETTE SLEEM: (Speaking Arabic).
FRAYER: And that's the principal of the school, Colette Sleem, describing these waves and waves of people fleeing northward. Her school is now full - you could hear children playing in the yard there - and she's now forced to turn people away.
It's worth looking at a map to understand the geography of this. First, last week, Israeli officials said they would take Lebanese territory up to the Litani River. That's a river that runs east-west about 10 to 20 miles north of the current Israel-Lebanon border. A few days later, they ordered residents out of a zone about 10 miles beyond that, north of the Zahrani River. And now, Netanyahu's announcement about this widening invasion is creating more confusion and more fear here.
FADEL: I mean, what does Israel say is its aim here? Why is it invading further into Lebanon?
FRAYER: So Israel says it wants to create a buffer zone where Hezbollah can no longer fire rockets across the border into northern Israel, which it is still doing by the thousands. An Israeli soldier with U.S. citizenship - grew up in New Haven, Connecticut - is the latest Israeli killed in combat inside Lebanon. You'll know, Leila, this is a zone that Israel occupied in the 1980s and '90s, and many Lebanese fear history is repeating itself now. Israeli officials say in Lebanon they want to duplicate the Gaza model, and we've all seen images of the destruction in that territory.
FADEL: Now, Jezzine is also where three Lebanese journalists were targeted and killed over the weekend, right?
FRAYER: That's right. Ali Shoeib, a veteran television correspondent - really a household name here in Lebanon - along with sibling journalists Fatima Ftouni and her cameraman brother, Mohammed Ftouni. Afterward, their father, Abbas Ftouni, appeared on TV.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ABBAS FTOUNI: (Speaking Arabic).
FRAYER: He's saying he was proud of his children. And Israel, as you noted, says it targeted them deliberately.
FADEL: And why?
FRAYER: Well, Shoeib worked for a Hezbollah-affiliated TV channel. The Israeli military accuses him and Mohammed Ftouni of being militants operating under the guise of journalists. It says it's aware of reports that a female journalist, Fatima, was there and takes steps to mitigate harm to civilians. But after the killings, an Israeli military spokesperson posted a picture on social media of one of the TV journalists dressed as a combatant in military garb and then admitted that the photo was fake. It was Photoshopped. Press freedom groups say accredited journalists deserve protection no matter what outlet they work for. Lebanese officials call this a crime that violates international law and say they're taking this to the U.N. Security Council.
FADEL: That's NPR's Lauren Frayer in Beirut. Thank you for your reporting, Lauren.
FRAYER: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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