South Lebanon | Israeli army carries out ground raids

The Israeli army announced on the night of Monday to Tuesday that it had started “localized ground raids” in villages in southern Lebanon, claiming to target the Islamist movement Hezbollah, despite international calls for de-escalation.

After the devastating blow inflicted on Hezbollah with the assassination of its leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday in an Israeli strike near Beirut, Israeli leaders warned that the war was not yet over against the pro-Iranian movement, Israel’s enemy. .

The Israeli army has been carrying out intense and deadly bombings on Lebanon for several days. According to a Lebanese security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, Israel launched at least six new strikes on south Beirut overnight, after the Israeli army ordered residents to evacuate. the places.

Israeli forces “began limited, localized and targeted ground raids a few hours ago, based on precise intelligence, against Hezbollah terrorist targets and infrastructure in southern Lebanon,” the army said on Telegram to 11 p.m. Monday (2 a.m. local Tuesday).

“Imminent threat”

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

The United States had announced a few hours earlier “limited” Israeli ground operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

In Washington, President Joe Biden suggested he was opposed to Israeli ground operations, calling for a ceasefire.

Following the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on October 7 on Israeli soil, which triggered the war with Israel in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah opened a front against Israel in support of its ally.

The armed forces “operate according to a methodical plan […] for which the Civil Defense soldiers have trained and prepared in recent months,” explained the Israeli army, specifying that the aviation and artillery supported the ground forces with precise strikes.

An official at a Palestinian camp in Sidon, southern Lebanon, told AFP that an Israeli strike there had targeted the home of a man Israel accuses of leading the Lebanese branch of the armed wing of the Palestinian Fatah movement.

“The Israeli raid targeted the house of Mounir Maqdah’s son” in the Ain al-Helweh camp, said the official, who requested anonymity. It was not immediately clear whether Mounir Maqdah was in the house.

The Israeli army, in its press release announcing the ground operations, emphasizes that it is doing “whatever is necessary to defend the citizens of Israel and return the citizens of northern Israel to their homes.”

The American site Axios indicated that according to Israeli officials speaking on condition of anonymity, the operation was “not aimed at occupying southern Lebanon”.

Hezbollah “ready”

Hezbollah fighters are “ready if Israel decides to enter the ground,” the group’s deputy leader, Naim Qassem, declared Monday in a first televised address since the death of Hassan Nasrallah.

“Israel has not been able to undermine our military capabilities,” he said, affirming that his party would continue its fight against Israel “in support of Gaza.”

In a statement released overnight, Hezbollah said it had “targeted” Israeli troops “moving” in orchards near the border, with a source close to the group saying the soldiers were “right on the border.” .

Hezbollah had no immediate comment after the Israeli military announced the ground raids, but the group’s al-Manar TV reported the Israeli statement announcing the raids on its Telegram channel.

The Lebanese army, overwhelmed by the military power of Hezbollah, is in the process of “repositioning” its troops further from the border, a military official told AFP.

According to Syrian state media, Israeli strikes also targeted the Damascus region overnight.

The official Sana news agency reported three civilians killed and nine others injured in the raids. According to Syrian state television, a journalist, Safaa Ahmad, was among the dead.

Calls for de-escalation

World leaders called on Monday for de-escalation in the face of the risk of “total war” in the region.

UN chief Antonio Guterres has expressed his opposition to any Israeli “land invasion” of Lebanon. Present in Beirut, the head of French diplomacy, Jean-Noël Barrot, also called on Israel to “refrain from any land incursion” as well as for a cease-fire.

Any new Israeli military intervention in Lebanon “must be avoided”, also launched the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell.

Several countries, including Canada and the United Kingdom, have announced that they have chartered flights to evacuate their nationals from Lebanon.

France deployed a military ship as a “precaution”, in case of need to evacuate French nationals.

Due to the “intensity of the fighting”, the UN announced on Monday that peacekeepers deployed in southern Lebanon could no longer patrol.

The death toll from Monday’s Israeli strikes in Lebanon is 95 dead, according to the Ministry of Health.

The death of Hassan Nasrallah, who was considered the most powerful man in Lebanon, constitutes a major victory for Israel against Iran, Israel’s enemy, and its allies including Hamas.

Israel has promised to fight its “enemies” and “eliminate” them wherever they are found. There is “no place in the Middle East that Israel cannot reach,” warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Iran affirmed that it would not “deploy” fighters to Lebanon and Gaza to confront Israel, believing that “the governments of Lebanon and Palestine have the capacity and power necessary to confront the regime’s aggression Zionist.”

Since mid-September, Israel has focused its military operations on the northern front.

In Gaza, a Palestinian territory devastated and besieged for almost a year, the Israeli army continues its offensive, but the strikes have decreased in intensity in recent days.

Washington supports the dismantling of Hezbollah’s “attack infrastructure” in Lebanon

The American Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, said he was convinced, like Israel, of the “need to dismantle the attack infrastructure” of Hezbollah, after the launch on the night of Monday to Tuesday of “localized ground raids” by Israel in southern Lebanon.

Lloyd Austin also warned Tehran against a possible “direct military attack targeting Israel”, emphasizing the “serious consequences” that this would entail for Iran, according to a press release published on the social network X.

The Pentagon chief made the statements after speaking with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

“We agreed on the need to dismantle attack infrastructure along the border to ensure that Lebanese Hezbollah cannot carry out October 7-style attacks against communities in northern Israel,” he said. he declared.

A “diplomatic resolution is necessary” to ensure the safety of civilians “on both sides of the border”, he also reaffirmed.