As Lebanon braces for expanded Israeli incursion, northern Israel residents see buffer zone as lifeline to normalcy | CNN

From the border communities of northern Israel, the rooftops of Lebanese villages are visible in an area the Israeli government now holds as a “security buffer zone.” And for more than 60,000 Israelis living in the frontier towns, the war with Hezbollah is not a distant reality. When air raid sirens sound here from Hezbollah’s rockets, there is no gap between warning and impact. Unlike in the rest of Israel, residents have only seconds to run for cover. On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced another expansion of the military buffer zone inside Lebanon to “finally thwart the threat of invasion and to push the anti-missile threat away from our border.” The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has claimed that Hezbollah was planning a ground offensive into Israel akin to Hamas’ October 7 attacks in 2023. The announcement was welcomed on the Israeli side of the border. “This is what we expect the IDF to do: to be before us, not behind us,” says Nisan Zeevi, a venture‑capital professional and third-generation resident of Kibbutz Kfar Giladi, located 800 meters from two villages he says are Hezbollah strongholds. “We cannot be the first line with Hezbol