After suffering its heaviest losses in a year of fighting the militant group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, Israel’s military asked inhabitants of over 20 villages in south Lebanon to leave their homes immediately on Thursday.
The provincial seat of Nabatieh was among the towns in the south where evacuation orders were issued, indicating that another Israeli operation aimed at weakening Hezbollah is about to take place.
After two weeks of heavy bombardment, Israel—which has been at war with Hamas in Gaza for nearly a year—sent troops into southern Lebanon, raising the stakes in a conflict that might involve Iran and the United States.
Three explosions were heard in a Hezbollah stronghold in a southern suburb of Beirut on Thursday, and numerous big plumes of smoke were rising following heavy Israeli strikes.
While Hezbollah said it detonated an improvised explosive device against Israeli forces infiltrating a southern Lebanese village.
Nine individuals were reportedly killed when Israel bombarded central Beirut overnight, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
Witnesses for Reuters claimed to have heard a tremendous explosion that was the closest an Israeli strike has come to the core downtown area. According to a security source, the explosion was directed towards a building in the Bachoura neighborhood, a few hundred meters from the parliament.
“Another sleepless night in Beirut. Measuring the explosions that rocked the city. Not a single warning siren. Not knowing what’s next. There’s nothing but that uncertainty ahead. The U.N. special coordinator in Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, stated on X on Thursday that dread and anxiety are pervasive.
An Israeli-claimed “precise” bombing in Beirut claimed the lives of seven of its employees, including two medics, according to a civil defense group affiliated with Hezbollah.
Israel added that it targeted a municipality building in the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil, killing 15 Hezbollah members, while more than a dozen Israeli missiles also hit the southern suburb of Dahiyeh, where Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed last week.
Eight Israeli soldiers were killed in ground combat in south Lebanon as Israel’s forces pushed into its northern neighbor. As Israel pushes into south Lebanon, it is also weighing its options for retaliation against its arch-foe Iran. The Islamic Republic launched its largest ever assault on Israel on Tuesday in what it said was retaliation for Israel’s assassination of senior Hamas and Hezbollah leaders and its operations in Gaza and Lebanon. Israel’s military said it had “eliminated” Rawhi Mushtaha, the head of the Hamas government in Gaza, along with senior security officials Sameh al-Siraj and Sami Oudeh in strikes three months ago.
Tehran said its attack was over, barring further provocation, but Israel and the United States have promised to hit back hard. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran would be ready to respond and warned against “silence” in the face of Israel’s “warmongering.”. Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani called for serious ceasefire efforts to stop Israel’s “aggression” in Lebanon and said no peace was possible in the Middle East without the creation of a Palestinian state.
The Lebanese border front opened after Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel on October 8 in support of Hamas in its war with Israel in Gaza. Iran’s other regional allies, Yemen’s Houthis and armed groups in Iraq, have also launched attacks in the region in support of Hamas. The Houthis have been firing missiles, sending armed drones, and launching boats laden with explosives at commercial ships with ties to Israeli, U.S., and UK entities since last year. Israel said it intercepted a suspicious aerial target in the area of central Israel early on Thursday.
(Reuters)
