Israel released video footage purporting to show its soldiers operating in homes and tunnels where Hezbollah kept weapons.
If true, it would be another humiliating blow for Iran-backed Hezbollah, the most powerful armed group in the Middle East. Hezbollah has been reeling from weeks of targeted strikes that killed its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and several of his top commanders.
On Tuesday morning, Israel warned people to evacuate to the north of the Awali River, some 60 kilometres from the border and much farther than the Litani River, which marks the northern edge of a UN-declared zone intended to serve as a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah after their 2006 war.
The border region has largely emptied out over the past year as the two sides have traded fire. But the scope of the evacuation warning raised questions as to how deep Israel plans to send its forces into Lebanon.
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburb.Credit: AP
An Israeli airstrike hit a residential building near Beirut, causing damage and blowing out windows in the area. The strike appeared to hit an apartment about 100 metres from the Iranian Embassy. There was no immediate word on casualties.
Anticipating more rocket attacks from Hezbollah, the Israeli army announced new restrictions on public gatherings and closed beaches in northern and central Israel. The military also said it was calling up thousands more reserve soldiers to serve on the northern border.
An Associated Press reporter saw Israeli troops operating near the border in armored trucks, with helicopters circling overhead, but could not confirm ground forces had crossed into Lebanon.
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Neither the Lebanese army nor a UN peacekeeping force that patrols southern Lebanon have confirmed that Israeli forces entered. The UN force said a cross-border operation would be a violation of Lebanese sovereignty.
Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif dismissed what he said were “false claims” of an Israeli incursion. He said Hezbollah is ready for “direct confrontation with enemy forces that dare to or try to enter Lebanon.”
Hagari, the Israeli military’s top spokesperson, claimed troops were conducting “localised ground raids” on Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon to ensure Israeli citizens could return to their homes in the north.
“We’re not going to Beirut,” he said.
He said Israel had carried out dozens of small raids inside Lebanon since Oct. 8, when Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel after the outbreak of the war in Gaza.
He said Israeli forces had crossed the border to collect information and destroy Hezbollah infrastructure, including tunnels and weapons. Israel has said Hezbollah was preparing its own October 7-style attack into Israel. It was not immediately possible to confirm those claims.
Israel strikes more targets and Hezbollah fires rockets
An Israeli military official said Hezbollah had launched rockets at central Israel, setting off air raid sirens and wounding a man. Hezbollah said it fired salvos of a new kind of medium-range missile at the headquarters of two Israeli intelligence agencies near Tel Aviv.
Israel warned Lebanese people to evacuate border communities Tuesday to avoid harm from ground operations.Credit: AP
Afif, the Hezbollah spokesman, said the missile attack “is only the beginning.”
The Israeli military official said Hezbollah had also launched projectiles at Israeli communities near the border, targeting soldiers without wounding anyone.
Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel shortly after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into Israel ignited the war in Gaza. Israel has launched retaliatory airstrikes and the conflict has steadily escalated. In recent weeks Israel has unleashed a punishing wave of airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon.
Hagari said the UN Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war had not been enforced and that southern Lebanon was “swarming with Hezbollah terrorists and weapons.”
That resolution called for Hezbollah to withdraw from the area between the border and the Litani River and for the Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers to patrol the region. Israel says those and other provisions were never enforced. Lebanon has long accused Israel of violating other terms of the resolution.
Israeli soldiers raise their fists from a moving APC in northern Israel near the Israel-Lebanon border on Tuesday.Credit: AP
Israeli strikes have killed over 1,000 people in Lebanon over the past two weeks, nearly a quarter of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry. Hundreds of thousands have fled their homes.
Hezbollah is a well-trained militia, believed to have tens of thousands of fighters and an arsenal of 150,000 rockets and missiles. The last round of fighting in 2006 ended in a stalemate, and both sides have spent the past two decades preparing for their next showdown.
Recent airstrikes wiping out most of Hezbollah’s top leadership and the explosions of hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah indicate Israel has infiltrated deep inside the group’s upper echelons.
The group’s acting leader, Naim Kassem, said in a televised statement Monday that Hezbollah commanders killed in recent weeks have already been replaced.
As the fighting intensifies, European countries have begun pulling their diplomats and citizens out of Lebanon.
Source Agencies
