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The death toll from Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon on Monday is 95, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
The Israeli army announced on Tuesday the start of “ground raids” on towns in southern Lebanon , hours after the Hezbollah movement said it had attacked “enemy soldiers” on the border between the two countries.
“In accordance with the decision of the political level, the Civil Defense forces began limited, localized and selective ground incursions a few hours ago , based on precise intelligence,” the army said in a statement released on Telegram at 02:00 on Tuesday (23:00 GMT on Monday).
On the Lebanese side, a security source told AFP that Israel launched at least six airstrikes on Monday night on a southern suburb of Beirut considered a Hezbollah stronghold.
The death toll from Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon on Monday is 95, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
The Israeli strike hit the Ain al-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon, an official in charge of the center said.
The Israeli raids, backed by air and artillery strikes, targeted Hezbollah fighters “in villages close to the border” with Israel, the statement said.
‘We are ready,’ says Hezbollah
But US news site Axios reported that the Israeli incursion was “selective and limited in time and scope, and does not seek to occupy southern Lebanon,” citing two Israeli officials.
Despite the devastating blow dealt to Hezbollah with the killing of its chief, Hassan Nasrallah, in a bombing near Beirut on Friday, Israeli leaders warned that the battle is not over against the pro-Iranian movement, Israel’s arch-enemy.
Before the raid, the Israeli army announced that it had established a “closed military zone” around the towns of Metula, Misgav Am and Kfar Giladi.
Earlier, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Nasrallah’s death was “an important step” but not the “end.”
“To ensure the return of the communities in northern Israel, we will use all our capabilities,” Gallant said during a visit to soldiers deployed on the border between Israel and Lebanon.
For his part, the number two of the Lebanese Islamist movement, Naim Qasem, said that “we are ready if the Israelis decide to enter our territory, our resistance forces are ready for a ground confrontation.”
However, the pro-Iranian movement initially did not comment on the announcement of the Israeli incursion.
Hezbollah said in a statement that it had attacked Israeli soldiers carrying out “movements” in orchards near the border.
Biden insists on ceasefire
The UN announced that the more than 10,000 UN peacekeepers deployed in southern Lebanon are no longer able to patrol due to the intensity of the fighting. And UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterated his opposition to any Israeli “ground invasion.”
In Washington, President Joe Biden hinted that he opposes Israeli ground operations in Lebanon and called for a ceasefire “now.”
Any new Israeli military intervention in Lebanon “must be avoided,” said EU foreign minister Josep Borrell.
Faced with this possibility, France has deployed a ship from its navy to Lebanon in case it becomes necessary to evacuate French citizens.
Hezbollah opened a front on the border with Israel almost a year ago, after the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, in support of its Islamist ally Hamas, in power in that Palestinian territory.
Since mid-September, Israel has shifted the bulk of its military operations northwards, with the aim of stopping Hezbollah rocket fire and allowing thousands of northern Israelis to return home.
First bombing in Beirut
For its part, Iran, a key ally of Hezbollah and also an ally of Hamas, has ruled out deploying fighters in Lebanon and Gaza to confront its arch-enemy Israel.
“There is no need to deploy Iranian auxiliary or volunteer forces,” said diplomatic spokesman Naser Kanani, adding that Lebanon and the fighters in the Palestinian territories “have the capacity and the necessary power to confront the aggression of the Zionist regime.”
Since the wave of Hezbollah pager and walkie-talkie explosions in Lebanon in mid-September, blamed on Israel, and the intensification of Israeli bombings that followed, more than 1,000 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
The first attack on Beirut since October 8 destroyed a flat in a building in the centre. According to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), three of its members were killed in the attack. Israel claims to have killed two commanders of the group, which is considered “terrorist” by both Israel and the EU.
In the Gaza Strip, which has been bombarded relentlessly for almost a year, the number of Israeli air strikes has decreased considerably in recent days.
