The Israeli military on Tuesday warned people to evacuate nearly two dozen Lebanese border towns, hours after launching what it said was a limited ground incursion against the Hezbollah militant group. Hezbollah denied the entry of Israeli forces, but said it was ready to fight them.
The army advised people to evacuate north of the Awali River, about 60 kilometers (36 miles) from the border and far beyond the Litani River, which marks the northern edge of the UN-declared zone that was meant to serve as a buffer zone between the two countries. Israel and Hezbollah after their 2006 war.
The statement published by the Arabic-language spokesman for the Israeli army, Avichay Adraee, on platform
The Israeli warning suggests a deeper incursion into Lebanon.
The border area has largely emptied over the past year as the two sides exchanged fire. But the scope of the evacuation warning has raised questions about the depth of Israel’s plans to send its forces into Lebanon as it presses ahead with its rapidly escalating campaign against Hezbollah.
An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations, said earlier that Israeli forces had so far been close to the border, and were concentrated on villages hundreds of meters away from Israel. The official said that there had been no clashes yet with Hezbollah fighters.
Hezbollah denied the entry of Israeli forces into Lebanon, but said its fighters were ready if they did.
In his first statement since Israel announced the start of ground operations, Hezbollah spokesman Muhammad Afif denied what he said were “false allegations” about an Israeli incursion. He said that Hezbollah is ready “for direct confrontation with enemy forces that dare to enter Lebanon or attempt to enter it.”
Israel bombs more targets and Hezbollah fires rockets
Israeli artillery units bombed targets in southern Lebanon during the night, and the sounds of air strikes were heard throughout Beirut.
The official said that Hezbollah fired rockets into central Israel, causing sirens to sound and wounding a man in his 50s. Hezbollah said it fired shots from a new type of medium-range missile called Fadi 4 at the headquarters of two Israeli intelligence agencies near Tel Aviv.
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Afif, Hezbollah’s spokesman, said the missile attack was “only the beginning.”
The Israeli military official said that Hezbollah also fired projectiles at Israeli towns near the border, targeting soldiers but without wounding anyone.
Israel says it launched “local raids”
Admiral Daniel Hagari, an IDF spokesman, said forces were launching “local ground raids” on Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon to ensure the return of Israeli citizens to their homes in the north.
Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel shortly after Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, which ignited the conflict in Gaza. Israel launched retaliatory air strikes, and the conflict steadily escalated. In recent weeks, Israel has launched a punishing wave of airstrikes on large parts of Lebanon, killing Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and several of its senior commanders, as well as numerous civilians.
Hajri said that the UN Security Council resolution that ended the last war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006 had not been implemented and that southern Lebanon was “infested with Hezbollah terrorists and its weapons.”
This decision called on Hezbollah to withdraw from the area between the border and the Litani River, and also called on the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeeping forces to patrol the area. Israel says these and other provisions were never implemented. Lebanon has long accused Israel of violating other provisions of the resolution.
There was no immediate confirmation from the Lebanese army nor the United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, that Israeli forces had crossed the border.
UNIFIL said that the army had notified it the previous day of “its intention to carry out limited ground incursions into Lebanon,” and described this as a “dangerous development.” He noted that any such incursion would also violate the UN resolution and urged both sides to stop escalation.
An Israeli official says there are no plans to head to Beirut
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Monday that his country is ready to deploy the army in support of the resolution if a ceasefire is reached. The Lebanese Armed Forces will not be able to impose an agreement on the more powerful Hezbollah.
Military statements indicate that Israel may focus its ground operations on the narrow strip along the border, rather than launching a larger invasion aimed at destroying Hezbollah, as it did in Gaza against the Palestinian Hamas movement.
The military official said that marching to Beirut, as Israeli forces did during their invasion of Lebanon in 1982, “is not on the table.”
Hezbollah and Hamas are close allies backed by Iran, and each escalation over the past year has raised fears of a broader conflict in the Middle East that could draw in Iran and the United States, which rushed to send military assets to the region to support Israel. .
The incursion comes after weeks of heavy strikes by Israel against Hezbollah – including an airstrike that killed its leader Hassan Nasrallah – and seeks to intensify pressure on the group. The last time Israel and Hezbollah engaged in ground combat was in a month-long war in 2006.
There was no word on how long the operation would take, but the army said that soldiers had been training and preparing for the mission in recent months.
The ground operation represents a new phase of fighting that may be fraught with danger. It also threatens to unleash more devastation in Lebanon. More than a thousand people were killed in Lebanon in Israeli raids during the past two weeks, nearly a quarter of them women and children, according to the Ministry of Health. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes.
Hezbollah is a well-trained militia that is believed to have tens of thousands of fighters and an arsenal of 150,000 rockets and missiles. The last round of fighting in 2006 ended in a stalemate, and the two sides have spent the past two decades preparing for the next confrontation.
The recent air strikes that eliminated most of Hezbollah’s senior leaders and the explosions of hundreds of Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies indicate that Israel has infiltrated deep into the group’s upper levels.
Hezbollah pledged on Monday to continue fighting even after its recent losses. The group’s acting leader, Naeem Qassem, said in a televised statement on Monday that Hezbollah would be ready for a ground operation. He said that commanders killed in recent weeks had already been replaced.
European countries began withdrawing their diplomats and citizens from Lebanon. A plane chartered by the British government is scheduled to leave Beirut on Wednesday to evacuate British citizens. The UK also sent 700 troops to a base on the neighboring island of Cyprus to prepare for the possible evacuation of an estimated 5,000 British citizens in Lebanon.
Marwa reported from Beirut.
