By James Mackenzie and Maya Gebeily
JERUSALEM/BEIRUT (Reuters) -Israel’s troops launched ground raids into Lebanon on Tuesday and its warplanes bombed from the skies, as arch-foe Hezbollah fired missiles at Tel Aviv and Washington said Iran could enter the fray with a ballistic missile fired at Israel.
Though so far characterised by Israel as limited, the first ground campaign into Lebanon for 18 years would pit Israeli soldiers against Iran’s best-armed proxy force in the Middle East in the biggest escalation of regional warfare since fighting erupted in Gaza a year ago.
It follows weeks of intense airstrikes that have decapitated the Lebanese militant group by killing most of its top leaders, while killing more than a thousand Lebanese and sending a million people fleeing their homes.
Iran, which sponsors Hezbollah, has also vowed to retaliate against Israel, raising fear that war could spill across borders throughout the region, despite efforts by the United States, Israel’s closest and most powerful ally, to contain it.
In Washington, a senior White House official said the U.S. was actively supporting preparations to defend Israel against a direct military attack on Israel by Iran. The official added that such an attack would carry severe consequences for Tehran.
Axios, citing a Western source, reported that Iran was expected to use a ballistic missile that could reach Israel in 12 minutes.
The rapid escalation that has engulfed Lebanon into war has killed hundreds and sent a million people fleeing their homes for shelter. Near the city of Sidon along the Mediterranean south of Beirut, mourners wept over coffins containing black-shrouded bodies of people killed in Israeli strikes.
“The building got struck down and I couldn’t protect my daughter or anyone else. Thank God, my son and I got out, but I lost my daughter and wife, I lost my home, I have become homeless. What do you want me to say? My whole life changed in a second,” said resident Abdulhamid Ramadan.
Many Lebanese said they were prepared to resist Israeli forces: “Not just Hezbollah, all of Lebanon will fight this time. All of Lebanon is determined to fight Israel for the massacres it committed in Gaza and Lebanon,” said Abu Alaa, a Sidon resident.
In Beirut, the capital, Israel carried out an attack that hit a high-rise building in the central Jnah area and one on the capital’s southern suburbs that briefly closed the road to Beirut airport. The Israeli military said it had carried out a “precise strike”.
Some families in Beirut abandoned their homes and went to camp out for safety on the beach.
“We are not able to sleep and we don’t know for how long we will stay here. A month, two months, a week or two, until this war is resolved,” said Mohamed Terkmene, one of 1.5 million Syrians living in Lebanon, now sheltering on the beach.
Israel has long said it would do whatever it takes to secure its northern border and let tens of thousands of Israelis return to towns they fled since the outbreak of war in Gaza a year ago, when Hezbollah began firing across the frontier in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
An Israeli security official said troops in southern Lebanon had begun limited raids into Lebanon overnight that only went a short distance over the border, adding that no direct clashes with Hezbollah fighters were reported.
But in a clear sign that the war could expand further, the military said it was calling up four additional reserve brigades for operational missions on the northern border.
‘BOGGED DOWN’
Israel has a history of fighting in Lebanon, which it invaded in 1982 in the midst of Lebanon’s own sectarian civil war. Israeli troops finally pulled out in 2000 but returned to fight another major war against Hezbollah in 2006. Since then, the border “blue line” has been monitored by the U.N.
Hezbollah, a Shi’ite militia formed by Iran to resist Israeli forces in Lebanon, has meanwhile evolved into Lebanon’s most powerful armed force, equipped with an arsenal of missiles and rockets. It is also Lebanon’s strongest political party, and sits at the forefront of a network of Iranian-backed armed movements across the Middle East.
Israel killed its leader of more than 30 years, Hassan Nasrallah, on Saturday with a massive airstrike on Beirut that sowed panic, just days after the group was shocked when booby-trapped pagers and radios blew up across the country.
The killing of Nasrallah has boosted the popularity of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which suffered a year ago from his failure to prevent the Hamas attack that killed 1,200 Israelis, saw 250 hostages taken back to Gaza and precipitated war there that has killed more than 41,500 Palestinians.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said Israel should avoid a repeat of the past and not get “bogged down in a quagmire” in Lebanon.
Israel’s military said its ground raids are aimed at Hezbollah strongholds along the border that threaten Israel, and it is not a war against the Lebanese people.
Military spokesman Daniel Hagari said Israeli commandos who infiltrated southern Lebanon in past weeks had found tunnels, weapons caches and other evidence that Hezbollah was planning an attack inside Israel, similar to the raid on Oct. 7 last year by Hamas fighters. Hezbollah has not commented on those claims.
EVACUATION ORDERS
In southern Lebanon near the border, Israeli officials have told residents to abandon their homes. At least 600 people were seeking refuge in a monastery after their Christian village of Ain Ebl received a warning from the Israeli military, residents told Reuters.
Ain Ebl was one of at least 20 towns where an Israeli military spokesman said residents should flee immediately because the military would attack houses used by Hezbollah.
An Israeli ground incursion will test the resilience of Hezbollah following the decapitation of its leadership. A Hezbollah spokesperson told Reuters on Tuesday the Israeli military had not entered Lebanese territory but that Hezbollah would be ready to fight them if they did.
Hezbollah said on Tuesday it had fired a “Fadi 4” long range missile at military positions in the suburbs of Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial capital. Israel’s ambulance service said two people had been wounded by shrapnel from the barrage of missiles.
(Reporting by James Mackenzie in Jerusalem and Maya Gebeily in Beirut; Writing by Rosalba O’Brien and Michael Georgy; Editing by Himani Sarkar, Neil Fullick, Michael Perry, Miral Fahmy and Sharon Singleton)
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Reuters news service. ThePrint holds no responsibilty for its content.