BEIRUT – The Israeli army on Thursday warned people to evacuate the city and other communities in southern Lebanon’s northern UN-declared zone, signaling a possible escalation of the operation launched earlier this week against the Hezbollah terrorist group.
Israel told people to leave Nabatieh, the provincial capital, and other communities north of the Litani River, which forms the northern edge of the border established by the UN Security Council after the 2006 war in a resolution that both sides blame the other for. to break.
At least eight Israeli soldiers were killed in clashes with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, where Israel announced the start of what it said was a limited offensive earlier this week. At the time the region was looking for retaliation from Israel following an Iranian ballistic missile attack.
The strikes kill and injure first responders
The Lebanese Red Cross said the Israeli strike injured four paramedics and killed a Lebanese army soldier while evacuating injured people in the south. It said a convoy near the village of Taybeh, which was accompanied by Lebanese troops, was targeted on Thursday despite coordinating its movements with UN troops. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Another Lebanese soldier was killed by Israeli fire at a military base in the southern city of Bint Jbeil, according to the Lebanese army, which said it returned fire. A Lebanese security official, who did not want to be named due to regulations, said the army officer had been attacked by gunfire.
An Israeli airstrike on an apartment complex in central Beirut on Wednesday killed nine people, including seven first responders who are members of Hezbollah. Israel has been attacking areas of the country where the militant group has a strong presence since late September, but rarely strikes in the heart of the capital.
There was no warning before Wednesday’s strike, which struck an apartment building not far from the United Nations headquarters, the Prime Minister’s office and parliament.
Residents reported a sulfur-like smell following the strike in Beirut, and Lebanon’s National News Agency accused Israel of using phosphorus bombs, without providing evidence. Human rights groups have in the past accused Israel of using white phosphorus shells on towns and villages in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hezbollah has an armed wing of tens of thousands of fighters but also a political movement and a network of humanitarian organizations.
Fighting is intensifying in southern Lebanon
Israel’s military said on Thursday it had struck about 200 Hezbollah targets across Lebanon, including weapons depots and observation posts. It said the strikes killed at least 15 Hezbollah fighters.
Hezbollah said its soldiers detonated a roadside bomb when Israeli soldiers entered the Lebanese border, Maroun el-Ras, the soldiers were crying and wounded. The claims made by either side could not be independently verified.
So far, ground clashes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants have been confined to a narrow border.
But hundreds of thousands of people have left their homes, as Israel has warned people to evacuate many cities and towns in the south, telling them to move to areas 60 kilometers (36 miles) from the border and further north. there is the river Litani.
Under UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, troops were to withdraw north of Litani, and Lebanese troops were to patrol the border region with UN troops.
Neither the Lebanese army nor the peacekeepers have been able to impose any truce on Hezbollah by force, and Israel says it has resisted the decision and is building extensive military infrastructure in towns and villages near the border. Lebanon has accused Israel of violating other parts of the resolution.
Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah after a year of rocket attacks that began on October 8 and displaced some 60,000 Israelis from northern communities. Israel has carried out retaliatory strikes over the past year that have left tens of thousands stranded on the Lebanese side.
In recent weeks, Israeli strikes in Lebanon have killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and several of his top brass. Airstrikes in large parts of Lebanon since mid-September have killed at least 1,276 people, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health.
Most of the recent strikes have been in areas where Hezbollah has a strong presence, including areas south of Beirut known as Dahiyeh. But Israel has also carried out strikes on Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, and a strike in central Beirut earlier this week killed three members of a Palestinian terrorist group.
Israel says it has killed a senior Hamas leader in Gaza
The escalating violence in Lebanon has opened a second phase in the war between Israel and the Iranian-backed militias that began almost a year ago with Hamas’ surprise October 7 attack on the Gaza Strip and into Israel.
Israel’s military said Thursday it had killed a senior Hamas leader in an airstrike in the Gaza Strip three months ago. It said a strike on an underground base in northern Gaza killed Rawhi Mushtaha and two other Hamas commanders.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas. Mushtaha was a close friend of Yahya Sinwar, a senior Hamas leader who helped plan the October 7 attack. Sinwar is believed to be alive and hiding inside Gaza.
Fears of an escalation of a wider war after the Iranian missile attack
Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen say they launched two drones in Tel Aviv overnight. The military said it spotted two planes flying over the bustling city’s coast, shot one of them down and the other crashed into the Mediterranean Sea.
Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis are part of the Iran-led Axis of Resistance, which also includes armed groups in Syria and Iraq. They launched an attack on Israel in collaboration with the Palestinians, seeking revenge in a cycle that has repeatedly threatened to spark a full-scale war.
The region was again on the brink of conflict after an Iranian missile attack on Tuesday, which was in response to the killing of Nasrallah, an Iranian Revolutionary Guard general who was with him, and Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas. , who was killed in an explosion in Tehran in July that was widely suspected in Israel.
Both Israel and the United States said there would be serious consequences for the missile attack, which slightly injured two people and killed one Palestinian in the West Bank. The United States rushed military supplies to the region to support Israel.
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