Israel has begun limited ground operations in southern Lebanon, significantly ratcheting up its military campaign against Hezbollah two weeks into intense air attacks. The ground raids began Monday night as Israeli paratroops and commandos from the elite 98th division invaded Hezbollah positions in villages that posed a threat to Israeli communities along the Israel-Lebanon frontier, supported by air and artillery strikes.
The Lebanese health ministry reported
At least 95 people were killed and 172 wounded in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon, the eastern Bekaa Valley, and Beirut over the last 24 hours. Part of its strategy has been to decapitate Hezbollah’s command structure, targeting even its highest echelons: it assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last week in Beirut-by one account one of Israel’s biggest successes against the group in decades.
Despite the strikes,
Hezbollah maintains its attacks against Israeli troops. Tuesday, the militant group claimed to have struck Israeli troops near the border town of Metula, although it did not own up to Israel’s land invasion. According to Lebanese sources, flares and heavy shelling were reported over border towns such as Aita al-Shaab and Rmeish, presumably connected with Israeli reconnaissance operations.
Israeli forces also targeted Ain al-Hilweh
Refugee camp in Lebanon on Tuesday in an airstrike that killed a military leader of the Palestinian Fatah movement’s military wing. This airstrike was the first on this camp since hostilities erupted a year ago and no one has seen the commander since.
Israel’s airstrikes on Syria killed three civilians
And left nine others wounded in Damascus. The airstrikes are part of Israel’s campaign against Iranian-linked targets in Syria, which has intensified since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
It rages on, Israeli attacks now targeting Hezbollah positions in the southern suburb of Beirut, killing members of the terrorist group and civilians as well. Hezbollah, meanwhile, continues to prepare for a ground battle; rockets are still fired deep into Israel.
Israel also persists with its onslaught in Gaza with the loss exceeding 41,300 Palestinians, at least, based on data from the Gaza health ministry that witnessed wholesale destruction in the territory. The unfolding standoff threatens to involve the regional powers, including Iran, in the game and predispose to draw in the US as tensions hang high in the Middle East.
US President Joe Biden has called for a ceasefire even as the White House refused to say anything about Israel’s ground incursions into Lebanon.
