The Israeli military is “currently conducting” limited ground operations targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon, the United States announced late Monday amid heavy artillery and tank shelling along the two countries' border.
“This is what they have told us they are currently conducting, a limited operation targeting Hezbollah infrastructure near the border,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
Lebanese media reported artillery shelling and tank fire targeting border villages bordering the areas of Metula, Misgab Am and Kfar Giladi in northern Israel, which had been declared a closed military zone early Monday.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese army said it was “positioning and reorganizing its forces” after reports it had withdrawn three miles from the country's southern border.
The report came in the wake of new airstrikes in Lebanon, including in central Beirut (the first in almost 20 years), and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant warned regional leaders that “the war against Hezbollah is next”. The next phase will begin soon,'' the announcement was made.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Tehran that it was free to attack anywhere in the region. “There is no place in the Middle East that Israel cannot reach,” he said in a video to Iranians.
“We will use all of our capabilities, including you,” Gallant previously told Israel's armed forces in northern Israel. The Israeli military subsequently declared the areas of Metura, Misgab Am, and Kfar Giladi in northern Israel a closed military zone.
US President Joe Biden said he was aware of Israel's plans to launch a military operation into Lebanon and called for opposition to such a move. “I'm more aware than you might think, and I wouldn't mind them stopping it,” he told reporters at the White House. “There should be a ceasefire now.”
Netanyahu and Gallant's threats came days after Iranian-backed Hezbollah veteran leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an airstrike south of Beirut.
On Sunday, Israel also carried out a major raid on a port in Yemen run by the Iranian-backed Houthi militia, raising fears of a devastating regional conflict on multiple fronts. .
Although many analysts have warned that senior Israeli officials have repeatedly made threats and there is no sign of large-scale mobilization by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), significant Israeli forces are currently moving across the disputed border. There is serious international concern that it could cross the border into southern Lebanon. It will arrive at Hezbollah's stronghold within days.
U.S. officials told Reuters they had observed Israeli military deployments that suggested a ground invasion of Lebanon could be imminent.
Friday's assassination of Nasrallah, the most powerful leader of Tehran's “Axis of Resistance” against Israeli and US interests in the Middle East, was one of the biggest blows to both Hezbollah and Iran in decades.
But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli military leaders appear committed to continuing what has become a region-wide effort to target the longtime enemy.
Continued Israeli air strikes in Lebanon have killed seven senior military officials and about a dozen more senior commanders. IDF officials said the airstrikes were aimed at stopping Hezbollah's cross-border shelling, which has prevented some 60,000 Israelis from returning to their homes, where they have fled since early 2016. are. The war last October.
Lebanon's Health Ministry said Sunday that more than 1,000 Lebanese have been killed and more than 6,000 injured in the past two weeks, without saying how many were civilians. The government announced that one million people, one-fifth of the population, had been forced to flee their homes.
In a three-minute video clip in English, Netanyahu accused the Islamic Republic of subjugating its people and directly threatened the Iranian leader.
“There is nowhere we will not go to protect our people and defend our country… There is no place in the Middle East that Israel cannot reach,” Netanyahu said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Iranians that Iran's “tyrants” do not care about their future and that everything will change when Iran is finally free.
An airstrike on an apartment building in central Beirut early Monday killed three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the first airstrike in the heart of the Lebanese capital since the brief war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006. A small left-wing faction in Palestine. Video showed ambulances and crowds gathering near the building on a busy thoroughfare lined with shops in a predominantly Sunni neighbourhood.
Palestinian militant group Hamas said a Lebanese leader was killed Monday in an Israeli military attack in the country's south. Hamas said in a statement that “Fatah Sharif Abu al-Amin, the leader of Hamas in Lebanon and a member of the movement's leadership abroad,” was killed in an airstrike on his “home in the al-Bas camp in southern Lebanon.” said that it was done.
Sources cited by Agence France-Presse said the Beirut airstrike was carried out using drones and struck near the Kola intersection, a popular reference point in the city where taxis and buses gather to pick up passengers.
Israel had limited its attacks on the Lebanese capital to the southern suburbs. The airstrikes raised questions about which areas of Beirut are still safe from Israel's growing airstrikes.
Last week, Paris and Washington, joined by Arab and Western nations, called on Israel and Hezbollah to agree to an “immediate 21-day ceasefire” and “give diplomacy a chance.” Israel rejected the plan.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrault urged de-escalation during a visit to Lebanon on Monday.
“The proposal for an advance ceasefire in Lebanon is still under consideration,” Foreign Minister Barot said from the French ambassador's residence in Beirut on Monday afternoon. There is a solution,” he added. ”
Hezbollah's acting leader has vowed that the group will continue to fight following Israel's assassination of Nasrallah on Friday.
In the first speech by a Hezbollah official since Nasrallah's death, Sheikh Naim Qasem said Hezbollah was preparing for an Israeli ground invasion and would continue to fire rockets to a depth of 150 kilometers (93 miles) into Israeli territory. He said he would continue to do so.
“What we are doing is the bare minimum…We know the fight may be long,” he said. “We will win just as we won in the 2006 liberation,” he added, referring to the last major clash between the two enemies.
Also on Monday, the Lebanese army announced that one soldier had been killed in an Israeli drone attack on a motorbike at a checkpoint.
The Pentagon said the United States is sending “thousands” of additional troops to the Middle East to strengthen security and stand ready to defend Israel if necessary.
