ZoneFlood

From Isracast:

When Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared there is no cease-fire, IDF ground forces had started a push to the Litani River in southern Lebanon.

Although there is a wide consensus in Israel to continue the campaign against Hezbollah, not all Knesset members agree. Yossi Beilin of the left-wing Meretz party says its a mistake to launch the ground operation.

The Litani River is 30km North of the border with Israel, and Lebanon has long suspected that Israel had designs on the river or its tributaries.

A fascinating book entitled Watershed is available in its entirity online, with many references to the history of Israel and its desire to posess the Litani River of Lebanon. Even in the earliest days of the state, the Litani was considered highly important. From Chapter 8:

It has been apparent to Zionist planners since the early 1900s that water was crucial to the economic vitality of Palestine. For example, Chaim Weizmann pleaded with the British and others to have the Litani River included within the boundaries of Palestine, because he understood the vital nature of this resource to the future of any Jewish state (see Chapter 6 and Figure 11, p. 126). As noted earlier, he was unsuccessful and later complained bitterly that his position was totally undermined by the British (Hof 1985).

From the Independent:

Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets over southern Lebanon yesterday warning civilians to leave border villages for areas north of the Litani river, about 13 miles from the frontier. The area south of the river is normally inhabited by around 300,000 people

From a paper written in 1997:

In the Middle East, the supply of water is much less than its demand, thereby resulting in conflict over it. This is true for Israel and Lebanon, where there have been struggles, although not always armed, for the waters of the Litani River. At this point, Israel occupies southern Lebanon. Part of the Litani is located in this region. There are conflicting reports and conclusions over whether or not Israel is using the Litani. There is also a verbal struggle over which country needs the Litani more, could make best use of it, and who, therefore, should develop their use of the Litani. Although there is not an armed struggle over it now, it has been involved in armed struggles in the past (in the 1967 war, and in 1982) and it is conceivable that in the future the struggles over it may become armed.