Beirut: Israel’s widely expected ground invasion of Lebanon appeared to be getting underway early on Tuesday as its military said troops had begun ‘limited’ raids against Hezbollah targets in the border area.
The military said in a statement that its targets were located in villages close to the border that posed “an immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel.” It said the air force and artillery were supporting ground forces with “precise strikes.”
Local residents in the Lebanese border town of Aita al-Shaab reported heavy shelling and the sound of helicopters and drones overhead.
On Monday, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant had told local council heads in northern Israel that the next phase of the war along Lebanon’s southern border would begin soon, and would support the aim of bringing home Israelis who have fled Hezbollah rockets during nearly a year of border warfare.
Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah – the most powerful leader in Tehran’s “Axis of Resistance” against Israeli and U.S. interests in the Middle East – was killed by Israel on Friday, dealing one of the heaviest blows in decades to both Hezbollah and its backer, Iran.
It followed two weeks of intensive air strikes that have eliminated several Hezbollah commanders but also killed about 1,000 civilians and forced one million to flee their homes, according to the Lebanese government.
At least 95 people were killed and 172 wounded in Israeli strikes on Lebanon’s southern regions, the eastern Bekaa Valley, and Beirut in the past 24 hours, Lebanon’s health ministry said early on Tuesday.
Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Qassem, in a first public speech on Monday since Nasrallah’s death, said that “the resistance forces are ready for a ground engagement.”
The Israeli attacks on militant targets in Lebanon are part of a conflict stretching from the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the occupied West Bank to Iranian-backed groups in Yemen and Iraq. The escalation has raised fears that the United States and Iran will be sucked into conflict.
(Reporting by Cairo and Beirut newsrooms; Writing by Rosalba O’Brien; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Neil Fullick)
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