Israeli forces tried to push into the southern Lebanese village of Beit Yahoun, in the Bint Jbeil district, and this time the advance did not go unanswered. The Israeli troops, moving on a village they have occupied, abandoned, and returned to across four decades, were confronted on the ground. One Israeli soldier was reportedly killed in the clash they initiated.

Israel then did what it always does when its ground operations meet resilience, it reached for the air, launching two airstrikes on the area.

The pattern is the same it always is, Israel advanced first. It was confronted second. It bombed third. Immediately, Israel then ran to social media to play the victim card, despite launching the advance that provoked the fighting.

We are already seeing the sequence being reversed, the airstrikes recast as a response to Hezbollah aggression, and very little said over Israel's continued occupation of land belonging to a sovereign nation. The occupier does not get to invade a village and then claim self-defence when the village resists. That is international law.