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Israel has launched a “restricted” floor operation in southern Lebanon, its navy mentioned within the early hours of Tuesday morning, within the newest stage of an intensifying marketing campaign in opposition to Hizbollah that has dealt a devastating blow to the Iran-backed militant group.
In a quick assertion, the Israeli navy mentioned it had begun “restricted, localised, and focused floor raids” in opposition to Hizbollah within the border space in southern Lebanon, including the operations had been backed by artillery and air assist.
The raids had been accompanied by renewed strikes in Beirut’s southern suburbs, that got here shortly after Israel’s navy issued evacuation warnings to residents of a number of neighbourhoods. Israel additionally struck a constructing in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp within the nation’s south for the primary time, Lebanese media reported.
The broadly anticipated incursion is Israel’s first land operation in opposition to Hizbollah since 2006, when it fought a 34-day struggle with the Iran-backed group that resulted in a stalemate, and marks the newest widening of the battle that has gripped the area since Hamas’s October 7 assault on Israel.
It follows a dramatic two-week escalation of hostilities, throughout which Israel has assassinated Hizbollah’s chief Hassan Nasrallah, decimated its chain of command and launched an awesome bombing marketing campaign that has killed greater than 1,000 folks in Lebanon, and displaced as many as 1mn.
At the least 95 folks had been killed prior to now 24 hours of Israeli strikes on Lebanon’s south, north-east and the capital Beirut, the well being ministry mentioned.
Israeli forces and Hizbollah started buying and selling hearth final yr, when the militant group launched rockets in assist of Hamas the day after the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 assault.
Within the ensuing months, the exchanges have displaced 60,000 folks on the Israeli facet of the border, and greater than 110,000 on the Lebanese facet.
For many of that point, the preventing has been contained in a restricted strip of land both facet of the border. However as Israel’s struggle with Hamas in Gaza has lowered in depth, its navy has shifted its focus to the confrontation with Hizbollah, in addition to stepping up strikes on different Iranian proxies elsewhere within the area.
Chatting with troops on Monday forward of the operation, Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant mentioned his nation’s purpose was to “return the residents of the north to their houses”. “We are going to use all of the means at our disposal to attain this purpose,” he mentioned.
The extent to which Hizbollah’s operational capabilities have been broken by Israel’s assaults is unclear. However the militant group, thought to have tens of hundreds of battle-hardened fighters and an unlimited arsenal of rockets and missiles, has continued to launch lots of of projectiles on Israel since its veteran chief was killed.
Within the first remarks by a Hizbollah official since Nasrallah’s demise final week, deputy chief Naim Qassem mentioned the group would proceed to battle in opposition to Israel.
“If the Israelis desire a floor incursion, the resistance forces are prepared for that,” he mentioned.
US officers earlier on Monday mentioned the Israeli authorities had mentioned the incursion with them, including that Washington had sought to restrict the scope and length of the operations. There are considerations they might result in an open-ended occupation of Lebanon’s border space — a concern that can be widespread in Lebanon, whose south was occupied by Israeli forces for 18 years.
Requested whether or not he was conscious of reviews of Israeli plans for a restricted floor invasion and comfy with one going forward, US President Joe Biden mentioned: “I’m extra conscious than you would possibly know, and I’m comfy with them stopping. We must always have a ceasefire now.”
