Israel expands offensive vs Hezbollah

JERUSALEM (AFP) —Israel ramped up its ground offensive against Hezbollah along Lebanon’s southern coast on Tuesday, after deploying more troops in the country and urging civilians living near the Mediterranean to evacuate.

The military’s announcement followed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pledge to keep fighting a “sacred war” until Israel’s enemies — Hezbollah and Hamas — are defeated. Both groups have vowed no let-up in the multi-front conflict.

Israel expanded its military operations in Lebanon last month after Hezbollah opened a front in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, following the deadliest attack in its history on 7 October 2023.

While battling Hamas in Gaza, Israel has also focused on securing its northern border to allow tens of thousands of displaced Israelis to return home.

Israel launched a wave of strikes against Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon on 23 September, leaving at least 1,110 people dead since then and forcing more than a million people to flee their homes.

Israeli operations have for the most part focused on areas in the south and east of Lebanon, traditional strongholds of Hezbollah, as well as the Iran-backed group’s main bastion in south Beirut.

While areas along the southern coast have not been spared, Israel’s latest evacuation warning to residents suggested a further expansion of the conflict northwards along the coastline.

On its Telegram channel, the Israeli military said its 146th Division began “limited, localized, targeted operational activities” against Hezbollah targets and infrastructure in southwestern Lebanon.

The military had on Monday said it would expand its operations against Hezbollah to south Lebanon’s coastal area and warned people to stay away from the shore.

The army “will soon operate in the maritime area against Hezbollah’s terrorist activities” south of the Al-Awali river, army spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote on social media.

On Tuesday, he reiterated the call to residents of south Lebanon not to return home.

Hezbollah said it had fired a salvo of rockets at Israeli troops in two areas of northern Israel.

The intensity of Israeli strikes on southern Beirut, which has been repeatedly pounded even after a bombing killed Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, decreased somewhat overnight, Agence France-Presse correspondents said.

The official National News Agency said more strikes hit southern and eastern Lebanon.

The expansion in the fighting in Lebanon came a day after Israelis and people around the world marked a year since Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel.

Meanwhile, the Iran-backed Hezbollah group said on Monday it ordered its fighters not to attack Israeli troops who recently moved behind a United Nations peacekeeping position near a Lebanese border village.

The statement came a day after UNIFIL had warned Israel’s operations near their position at Maroun al-Ras was “extremely dangerous” and compromised their safety, adding it had repeatedly informed Israel of their concerns.

Hezbollah said it reported “unusual movement of Israeli enemy forces behind a UNIFIL position, on the outskirts of the border village of Maroun al-Ras.”