Israel announces ground offensive in southern Lebanon

The Israeli army announced on Tuesday that it had launched a ground offensive in southern Lebanon accompanied, according to it, by fighting against Hezbollah, after a week of intense bombardments which left hundreds dead across the country.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), deployed along the border with Israel, has however assured that it has not detected “for the moment” any Israeli incursion.

Hezbollah has denied that Israeli troops have entered Lebanon, while an Israeli security official reported “localized raids of a very limited scale” intended to “remove threats to civilian communities in northern Israel.”

After the devastating blow dealt to the Iranian-backed Lebanese Islamist movement with the death of its leader Hassan Nasrallah, killed Friday in an Israeli strike near Beirut, Israel warned that the war against Hezbollah was not over.

The armed movement has been increasing its rocket fire toward northern Israel for the past year in support of the Palestinian Hamas, which is at war with Israel in the Gaza Strip.

Smoke rises above the villages of Adaisseh and Kfar Kila in southern Lebanon after Israeli artillery fire, October 1, 2024 © AFP – –

The Israeli army announced that it had launched ground operations on Monday evening that it described as “limited, localized and targeted”, supported by the air force and artillery, against “targets and Hezbollah's “terrorist infrastructure” in southern Lebanon.

“These targets are located in villages near the border and pose an immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel,” she said.

Airstrikes also targeted the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, the surroundings of Damascus in Syria, and the Gaza Strip, where Israel has been conducting an offensive since October 7, 2023, in retaliation for Hamas' unprecedented attack on its soil.

– Call to evacuate –

The Israeli army reported “heavy fighting” in southern Lebanon on Tuesday and called on residents of 27 localities to “immediately” evacuate their homes and head toward the north.

“There are troops on the ground in southern Lebanon,” an Israeli military official told AFP when questioned on the subject, without being able to confirm whether fighting was underway.

Hezbollah, for its part, assured that no “direct clash” had pitted its fighters against the Israeli army, while a source in the Lebanese army said it had not observed any ground incursion.

Hezbollah claimed to have targeted Israeli soldiers with artillery fire and rockets in Metula and Avivim, in northern Israel.

It also claimed responsibility for rocket fire towards the main Israeli military intelligence base, Glilot, near Tel Aviv, in the center of the country.

Israel announced a tightening of restrictions on public gatherings, including in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, on New Year's Eve jewish.

The army also announced that it had carried out “precision strikes on several Hezbollah weapons manufacturing sites and other infrastructure” in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Monday.

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Burial of members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine killed by an Israeli strike in Lebanon, September 30, 2024 © AFP – Fathi AL-MASRI

In southern Lebanon, six people, including the son of a Palestinian military official, were killed in an Israeli strike Tuesday at dawn on the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Helweh, according to the official Lebanese agency ANI.

In Syria, Israeli strikes targeted the Damascus region during the night, killing six people including three civilians, according to an NGO.

– Emergency aid –

After a year of exchanges of fire on the border, Israel has intensified its military operations on the northern front since mid-September, in order to weaken Hezbollah and allow the return of tens of thousands of inhabitants of the border regions displaced by the incessant rocket fire.

In Lebanon, more than a thousand people have been killed, according to the Ministry of Health, since the explosions of Hezbollah's transmission devices on September 16 and 17, attributed to Israel, and the start of massive bombings targeting Hezbollah strongholds from September 23.

Israeli bombing of the village of Adaisseh, in southern Lebanon, on October 1 2024 © AFP – Jalaa MAREY

Lebanon is facing “one of the most dangerous phases in its history,” Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Tuesday.

The UN has appealed for more than $400 million to help the displaced, who number one million according to Mikati, while Lebanon has asked for an air corridor to be opened to deliver humanitarian aid.

The UN again warned Tuesday of the consequences of a “large-scale ground invasion” by Israel in Lebanon.

– “Dismantle Hezbollah's infrastructure” –

Destruction in southern Lebanon after Israeli strikes, September 30, 2024 © AFP – Mahmoud ZAYYAT

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday he agreed with Israel on the “need to dismantle Hezbollah's attack infrastructure” to ensure it “cannot carry out attacks of the type that occurred on October 7 against communities in northern Israel.”

He did, however, call for a “diplomatic resolution” to ensure the safety of civilians “on both sides of the border,” and warned Iran against a possible “direct military attack targeting Israel.”

Strikes in Lebanon and Israel © AFP – Valentina BRESCHI, Sylvie HUSSON

Defying calls for de-escalation from the international community in the face of the risk of an extension of the war, Israel has promised to fight its “enemies” and “eliminate” them wherever they are.

The American site Axios has however indicated that, according to Israeli officials speaking on condition of anonymity, the ground operation was “not aimed at occupying southern Lebanon”, from which Israel withdrew in 2000 after 22 years of occupation.

The Israeli offensive continues meanwhile in the Gaza Strip, even if the strikes have decreased in intensity.

On Tuesday, bombings killed 12 people in the Nusseirat refugee camp, in the centre of the Palestinian territory. Seven more people died in strikes on a school sheltering displaced people near Gaza City in the north.

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