Israel launches ‘ground raids’ against Hezbollah
Israel has initiated what it terms “limited, localized, and targeted ground raids” in southern Lebanon, escalating its ongoing offensive against Hezbollah.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) report that the operation focuses on the Iran-backed group’s “infrastructure,” which they claim presents an immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant hinted earlier that the army was prepared for a ground operation, informing troops stationed near the Lebanese border that Israel is ready to deploy forces “from the air, sea, and land” to confront Hezbollah.
Hezbollah’s deputy leader stated that the group is ready for any Israeli incursions into Lebanon.
In a statement posted on X at 2:00 AM local time on Tuesday, the IDF confirmed that troops had crossed the border following the mobilization of tanks and other armored vehicles in northern Israel.
According to Reuters, which cited a Lebanese security source, the Lebanese army is withdrawing its troops stationed along the southern border to at least 5 kilometers (3 miles) north.
On Monday, Gallant told Israeli soldiers at the border that the military would utilize all “means at our disposal” to ensure that displaced individuals can return to their homes in northern Israel.
In a brief video, he stated that the “elimination” of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut on Friday was a significant step but not the final solution.
He emphasized that “everything that needs to be done will be done” and reiterated that Israel would deploy forces from the air, sea, and land.
The Israeli government has committed to ensuring the safety of tens of thousands of its citizens who have been displaced due to nearly a year of cross-border conflict, which began when Hezbollah launched rockets at the onset of the war in Gaza.
Hezbollah, classified as a terrorist organization by the US, UK, and other nations, is known to operate extensive tunnel networks, bunkers, and other military facilities just across the border from Israel.
Hezbollah’s deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem said the group – which is thought to have tens of thousands of well-trained fighters – was ready for an Israeli ground offensive. He described their attacks on Israel so far as the “minimum”, adding that the battle could be long.
Hezbollah – which is backed by Iran – has experienced mass casualties from exploding pagers and walkie-talkies, a wave of assassinations of its military commanders, devastating air strikes that have killed civilians – and the use of bunker-busting bombs in Beirut, which killed the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday.
Explosions lit up the night sky on Monday as airstrikes hit Hezbollah’s stronghold of Dahieh, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, near the airport.
The attacks came shortly after the Israeli military warned residents to evacuate buildings it said were linked to the group.
In southern Lebanon, there were reports of heavy shelling in the border town of Aita al-Shaab.
Near the city of Sidon, officials say a strike hit a building in a crowded Palestinian refugee camp, the first time it has been attacked in this conflict.
Lebanese officials say more than 1,000 people have been killed in the past two weeks, while up to a million may now be displaced.
On Monday, US President Joe Biden said “We should have a ceasefire now”.
“I’m more aware than you might know and I’m comfortable with them stopping,” Biden told reporters when asked if he was comfortable with Israeli plans for a cross-border incursion.
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy spoke to his US counterpart Antony Blinken on Monday, with the US State Department saying they discussed efforts to resolve the conflict. Both men stressed the need for a ceasefire and that the hostages taken by Hezbollah’s Palestinian ally Hamas in the 7 October attack on Israel needed to be returned home.
The European Union’s member states have called for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said “Any further military intervention would dramatically aggravate the situation and it has to be avoided”.
Meanwhile, Israel and Hamas have both confirmed the killing of the head of Hamas in Lebanon, Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin, in Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon.
Israel’s military said Sherif was “responsible for co-ordinating Hamas’s terror activities in Lebanon with Hezbollah operatives”.
Another Israeli strike in the central Beirut neighbourhood of Kola early on Monday killed three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Palestinian armed group said in a statement.
The statement named those killed as military security chief Mohammad Abdel-Aal, military commander Imad Odeh, and fighter Abdel Rahman Abdel-Aal.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) director of communications for Lebanon, Jinane Saad, told the BBC that “we don’t really know where is safe or not” after the strike on the Kola neighbourhood.
“What is safe today might not be safe in an hour or tomorrow,” she said.
The previously sporadic cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah escalated on 8 October, 2023 – the day after the unprecedented attack on Israel by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip – when Hezbollah fired at Israeli positions, in solidarity with the Palestinians.
