LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Israel has launched what it's calling limited incursions into southern Lebanon.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This comes after Israeli airstrikes killed top Hezbollah officials and more than 1,000 people, including women and children.
FADEL: Joining us now from Beirut is NPR's Jane Arraf, and from Haifa in northern Israel, NPR's Kat Lonsdorf. Thank you both for being here.
JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: Thank you.
KAT LONSDORF, BYLINE: Thank you.
FADEL: So, Jane, I want to start with you. What just happened?
ARRAF: Well, the short answer, Leila, Israel has invaded Lebanon, not for the first time but the first time since 2006. Late last night there was heavy Israeli shelling across the border, and that was followed by Israeli troops moving in. The Lebanese army withdrew from checkpoints and pulled back. An army official called it repositioning. There's now extensive damage in border villages, the main road to some of them now impassable. We have to remember that the Lebanese army is much weaker than Hezbollah, which has been fighting across the border in support of Palestinians in Gaza since that war began a year ago. The Lebanese government says at least 95 people were killed and 170 wounded in Israeli attacks just yesterday alone.
FADEL: Right, and that was in both south Lebanon and in Beirut.
ARRAF: Exactly.
FADEL: Now, Kat, what is the Israeli military saying about this operation?
LONSDORF: Well, the Israeli military is calling these, quote, "limited" and "localized raids." But we've heard them use this language before in parts of Gaza, and Israel's still fighting a war there nearly a year later, so there are some real questions about what that really means. They also put out a statement saying that the troops that went into Lebanon first were the same brigades that had been operating in Gaza, noting that these troops gained skills and operational experience that they are going to be using in the north.
You know, Gaza has been a brutal war, with more than 41,000 Palestinians killed in the fighting there. Israel officials say that the point of this incursion is to push Hezbollah back from the border to create what they call a, quote, "buffer zone." And that's so that the tens of thousands of Israelis that have been displaced from the north can return home, which is something Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been promising.
FADEL: OK, so the last time Israel had what it called a buffer zone in Lebanon, it turned into an 18-year occupation of Lebanon southern towns and villages. Now, you've been up in the north for the past week. And you spent yesterday talking to Israelis still living close to the Israel-Lebanese border. What are they saying?
LONSDORF: Yeah, so yesterday before this incursion started, we spent all day driving around to cities and towns near the border. It's an area that has been increasingly militarized in the past few months. Since the last time I was up here, there have been a lot of checkpoints added. Evacuated kibbutzim have been turned into makeshift military bases, and there's just lots and lots of military equipment being moved up. Driving around, you'll see tanks, jeeps, soldiers all mobilizing. And there's still a lot of sirens and rockets, too. You know, yesterday, we had to find cover at least three times.
We went to the town Rosh Pina. It's in an area that's been targeted by Hezbollah rockets a lot in the past week, several times a day. And I talked with Ehud Yotam (ph). He was sitting in a small cafe. He actually fought in the Israeli military in Lebanon back in the '90s when Israeli troops occupied southern Lebanon, like you said, for 18 years. And I asked him how he was feeling knowing that a similar situation might be about to happen.
EHUD YOTAM: It's going to be tough. It's not going to be easy. But still, it's necessary, it must be, if you want to defend the border of Israel. So now we have to do the operation first, and then we're going to have the time to diplomatic sway.
LONSDORF: And I talked to a lot of people yesterday who had a very, very similar sentiment, that this was a necessary next step for Israel to do and that diplomacy was not an option right now, that it could happen later.
FADEL: So, Jane, what about what you're hearing from Lebanese civilians? I mean, we've seen these Israeli airstrikes across the country and in central Beirut.
ARRAF: It's really hard to describe how surreal it is. I mean, here in Beirut - in many senses, a sophisticated city - they go through the day with drones overhead, Israeli drones, the sound of sirens. You can hear the airstrikes from different parts of Beirut. This is already a damaged country. And what's happening now has left people lost in many senses. Israel had been focusing its attacks in Beirut in the southern suburbs where Hezbollah has bases. But this week, in its first attack in years, it struck central Beirut...
FADEL: Yeah.
ARRAF: ...An apartment building, targeting commanders of a major Palestinian faction. We had been there just two days before, and people displaced by the attacks in the suburbs were sleeping on the streets. When we went back yesterday, a lot of people were trying to leave the city entirely. It was close to a depot for minibuses. A bus driver called out the destinations.
HASSAN: Sidon, Sidon.
ARRAF: The driver, Hassan (ph) - everyone's afraid of giving full names - had himself been displaced from the south of Lebanon, where part of his neighborhood has been destroyed. I asked him about the future, about a country without Hassan Nasrallah.
HASSAN: (Speaking Arabic).
ARRAF: He said, no, we're not without him. He left hundreds behind like him. We all know this. So imagine this small country, 6 million people, 1 million displaced, many with no possessions and nowhere to go. Those who can leave the country are trying hard, but if you look at the airport departure list at Beirut Airport, it's just cancellation after cancellation, and that has become much, much tougher.
FADEL: What about how Hezbollah is responding?
ARRAF: Israel's killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was an immense blow. So last night, Hezbollah continued to shell Israeli positions across the border. And Nasrallah's deputy, Naim Kassem, addressed followers as well. Across Beirut, people were listening on their phones and car radios.
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NAIM KASSEM: (Speaking Arabic).
ARRAF: Kassem said they would continue the battle in support of Palestinians and to defend Lebanon. And he ended with a Quranic verse that counseled patience while rebuilding strength for the fight. And meanwhile, Israel has expanded from its main target of Hezbollah - Lebanese but Iran-backed - to militant Palestinian leaders, including a strike yesterday on a Palestinian refugee camp.
FADEL: Now, Kat, all of this, of course, is happening and maybe overshadowing what continues, which is the war in Gaza.
LONSDORF: Yeah.
FADEL: And it seems the scale of the conflict is only expanding.
LONSDORF: Yeah. I mean, Israel is now fighting on several fronts. The war in Gaza is still very much happening, and now this expanded front up north in Lebanon. And there are also nearly daily Israeli military raids happening in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. And Israelis generally seem supportive of a lot of this. One question that everyone is asking here, though, it's that, like I said earlier, the Israeli leadership justified this operation up north with a pledge to return the displaced people their home. But now as this conflict expands, there's no guarantee this will end.
FADEL: That's NPR's Kat Lonsdorf in Haifa, northern Israel, and Jane Arraf in Beirut, Lebanon. Thank you to you both and be safe.
LONSDORF: Thank you, Leila.
ARRAF: Thank you.
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FADEL: Tonight, Ohio Senator JD Vance and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz will face off for the first and only time in the vice presidential debate.
MARTIN: Republican Vance and Democrat Walz both need to help their respective tickets win over undecided or perhaps indifferent voters in several crucial swing states, even as voting is already underway in parts of the country.
FADEL: NPR political correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben is here to help us set up what tonight might look like. Good morning, Danielle.
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Hey. Good morning.
FADEL: So let's start with the Republican candidate. What are you expecting from JD Vance?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, he's smart - he went to Yale Law School, after all - and he does a lot of interviews. And he isn't shy in those about arguing with his interviewers, so I imagine he might be an aggressive debater tonight. But he also does have some low favorability ratings to overcome, so we may well see him try to be as likeable and approachable as possible. Now, in a call yesterday with the Trump campaign, reporters got a taste of what Vance might say tonight. They really emphasized that despite Walz's casual demeanor on the trail, he is still a longtime politician. And they also cast Walz as super liberal. Minnesota Representative Tom Emmer, who has been playing Walz in Vance's debate prep, he called Walz Gavin Newsom in a flannel shirt.
FADEL: OK, so what about Tim Walz? What should we expect there?
KURTZLEBEN: You know, we haven't heard as much from the Harris side about his debate prep, but a source familiar told my colleague Tamara Keith that they're really trying to let, quote, "the governor be the governor," and let him stay true to who he is, not turn him into a slick debater like Vance. He's really the one, remember, who really popularized calling Vance and Trump weird and while casting Democrats as common sense. That's one of his big philosophies in this race.
FADEL: OK, I have to ask, though, how much this debate actually matters. As we point out, I mean, early voting has started in parts of the country. There's already been this big debate between Trump and Harris.
KURTZLEBEN: Right, yeah. I mean, vice presidential debates don't have a history of swinging polls meaningfully. Now, I'm not going to say that they don't matter, especially in a tight race like this. And also, these two, either one would be a heartbeat from the presidency, as we say. I mean, generally, I think the idea of a vice presidential debate is, first, do no harm. These guys need to not make any big flubs and just sell the person at the top of the ticket.
The two things I would add is that, you know, this is a unique debate in some ways. Like you said, we've had one matchup - but it's only been one - between Harris and Trump. We're not expecting another, so this is only going to be the second debate that voters are going to see. Besides that, you know, Harris has only been a candidate for two months, so Walz is defending a record that many voters might not even be very familiar with. And Vance, meanwhile, might be trying to make up for a presidential debate that went badly for Trump.
FADEL: OK, sp tonight seems to not so much be about winning individually as it's about sticking to the presidential candidate's message. But both Vance and Walz are new to a lot of Americans. How much is tonight about the message versus the messenger?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, like you said, a lot of Americans are just getting to know these two guys, so people watching may well learn something new about them. Moreover, Walz and Vance are both the everyman halves of their respective tickets. Trump, after all, is a billionaire. And Kamala Harris has been well-known as a politician for years, and moreover, she is something new in a presidential candidate. She's a woman of color. So both of these guys very much may try to just be as relatable as possible. That's something they do a lot, and I imagine that's what we'll see from them tonight.
FADEL: NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben. Thank you, Danielle.
KURTZLEBEN: Thank you.
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FADEL: There's one more story we're following. Dockworkers at ports from Houston to Boston are on strike.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Chanting) Who are we?
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Who are we?
FADEL: At the Port of Baltimore, a picket line formed just after midnight when workers' contracts with shipping companies and port operators expired. They're demanding better wages and job protections. The standoff could ensnare billions of dollars in imports and exports. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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