By James Mackenzie, Maya Gebeily and Timour Azhari
JERUSALEM/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Israel mentioned intense combating erupted with Hezbollah in south Lebanon on Tuesday after its paratroopers, commandos and armoured models launched raids at the beginning of a floor incursion.
The operation follows intense airstrikes which have devastated the group’s management, together with assassinating its chief Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut final week.
The Israeli army mentioned the operations in Lebanon started on Monday night time and concerned the elite 98th division, which was deployed to the northern entrance two weeks in the past from Gaza the place that they had been combating in opposition to Hamas for months.
It mentioned its air pressure and artillery supported floor troops engaged in “limited, localised, and targeted ground raids” in opposition to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon villages that posed “an immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel”.
Israel’s floor raids will goal Hezbollah strongholds alongside the border that threaten Israel, not a conflict in opposition to the Lebanese individuals, Israel’s army mentioned on Tuesday.
“Hezbollah turned Lebanese villages next to Israeli villages into military bases ready for an attack on Israel,” army spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari mentioned. Residents in southern Lebanon fled on Monday and Tuesday as Israeli strikes drew nearer, native sources advised Reuters.
Lebanon is going through one of the vital harmful phases in its historical past, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati mentioned on Tuesday throughout a gathering with UN organisations and ambassadors of donor international locations, wherein they made a joint attraction for greater than $400 million in help to deal with surging hostilities.
Two Lebanese safety sources advised Reuters that Israeli models had crossed into Lebanon in a single day for reconnaissance and probing operations. Lebanese troops additionally pulled again from positions alongside the border, the supply added.
Hezbollah mentioned on Tuesday it had launched rocket and artillery assaults in opposition to Israeli troops at positions inside Israel, and made no point out of Israeli forces inside Lebanon.
Israel’s ambulance service mentioned one particular person had been wounded by shrapnel from the barrage of missiles fired into central Israel.
The Israeli army issued a warning to residents to not transfer of their automobiles from the world north of the Litani river in Lebanon to its south. It has beforehand mentioned it desires to clear Hezbollah from south of the river.
Regardless of its largest successes in opposition to Hezbollah in many years, Israel has indicated it’s primed for a full-fledged invasion of Lebanon with the acknowledged purpose of enabling 1000’s of its residents who fled Hezbollah rockets to soundly return to their communities close to the northern border.
Israel’s strikes have displaced a million Lebanese from their houses and killed greater than 1,100 individuals, Lebanese authorities have mentioned. A looming floor offensive has sparked concern and anger in Lebanon.
“Not just Hezbollah, all of Lebanon will fight this time. All of Lebanon is determined to fight Israel for the massacres it committed in Gaza and Lebanon,” mentioned Abu Alaa, a resident of the southern port metropolis of Sidon.
LEBANESE ARMY PULLS BACK
Iran’s allies — from Hezbollah to Yemen’s Houthis to armed teams in Iraq — have weighed in with assaults within the area in assist of Hamas within the Gaza conflict, elevating fears the battle will engulf the Center East and suck in the USA and Tehran.
Yemen’s Houthi motion focused Israeli army posts in Tel Aviv and Eilat with drones on Tuesday, the group’s army spokesperson Yahya Saree mentioned in a televised speech.
Native residents within the Lebanese border city of Aita al-Shaab reported heavy shelling and the sound of helicopters and drones overhead. Flares have been repeatedly launched over the Lebanese border city of Rmeish, lighting up the night time sky.
An Israeli strike in Lebanon early on Tuesday focused Mounir Maqdah, commander of the Lebanese department of the Palestinian Fatah motion’s army wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, in accordance with two Palestinian safety officers.
His destiny was unknown.
The strike hit a constructing within the crowded Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp close to the southern metropolis of Sidon, the sources mentioned. It marked the primary strike on Lebanon’s largest Palestinian camp since cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel broke out practically a 12 months in the past.
Israel has not commented on the strike.
In Syria, three civilians have been killed and 9 others injured in an Israeli airstrike on the capital Damascus, Syrian state media mentioned on Tuesday citing a army supply. Israel’s army mentioned it doesn’t touch upon international media reviews.
Israel has been finishing up strikes in opposition to Iran-linked targets in Syria for years however has ramped up raids because the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel’s southern territory on Oct. 7, 2023.
Hamas killed 1,200 individuals and took about 250 hostage in its assault on Israel, in accordance with Israeli tallies. Israel in response launched a large assault on Hamas in Gaza, killing greater than 41,300 Palestinians, in accordance with the Gaza well being ministry.
STRIKES ON BEIRUT
Israel’s operations in Lebanon comply with its lethal detonation of booby-trapped Hezbollah pagers, two weeks of airstrikes, and its killing on Friday of Nasrallah.
In a single day, a sequence of strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs after the Israeli army warned residents to evacuate areas close to buildings it mentioned contained Hezbollah infrastructure south of the capital.
Up to now 24 hours, no less than 95 individuals had been killed and 172 wounded in Israeli strikes on Lebanon’s southern areas, the jap Bekaa Valley, and Beirut, Lebanon’s well being ministry mentioned early on Tuesday.
