Israel starts ‘targeted ground raids’ in South Lebanon
The Israeli military said Tuesday that troops had started ‘ground raids’ in villages in southern Lebanon, after extremist group Hezbollah said it had targeted ‘enemy soldiers’ at the countries’ border.
A Lebanese security official said Israel had also conducted at least six strikes on south Beirut, while Syrian state media reported deadly strikes around the capital Damascus.
Despite international calls for de-escalation, Israel has vowed to keep fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah and declared a military zone in parts of its border with Lebanon.
Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant warned the battle was not over, even after a massive strike on Beirut that killed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Friday, dealing the group a seismic blow.
Israel’s military said troops, backed by airstrikes and artillery, launched ground raids targeting Hezbollah ‘in villages close to the border’.
The targets ‘pose an immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel’, the military said.
US defense secretary Lloyd Austin late Monday gave Washington’s backing to Israel ‘dismantling attack infrastructure along the border’.
Hezbollah has said it is ‘ready if Israel decides to enter by land’.
As Israel announced its ground raids, Syria’s official news agency SANA said the country’s air defence systems had intercepted three rounds of strikes in the Damascus area.
State television said anchor Safaa Ahmad was killed ‘in the Israeli aggression’ on Damascus, while SANA reported three civilians killed and nine others wounded.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has carried out hundreds of strikes on Syria in recent years.
As the Israeli air force pounded south Beirut, a Palestinian camp official in south Lebanon said an Israeli strike hit Ain al-Helweh camp in the city of Sidon, targeting a Palestinian militant.
The strike hit ‘the house of the son of Mounir Maqdah,’ the official said, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. Israel has accused Maqdah of heading the Lebanese branch of Fatah’s armed wing.
Hezbollah earlier said it ‘targeted’ Israeli troops in the border village of Shtula, with a source close to the group saying the soldiers were ‘right on the border’.
There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah following the Israeli army’s announcement of the ground raids, but the group’s al-Manar television reported the Israeli statement on its Telegram channel.
US news site Axios cited two Israeli officials saying the military incursion is ‘targeted and limited in time and scope and is not intended to occupy southern Lebanon’.
Lebanon’s national army, dwarfed by Hezbollah’s military power, was ‘repositioning’ troops farther from the border, a military official told AFP.
World leaders have urged de-escalation, with UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric saying: ‘We do not want any sort of ground invasion.’
This month, Israel launched a wave of deadly air strikes aimed at Hezbollah across Lebanon, the latest of which killed 95 people on Monday, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
