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Key Points
- Israel’s military has launched ground raids in Lebanon that it says are targeting Hezbollah.
- Hezbollah’s deputy leader said “resistance forces are ready for a ground engagement”.
- The ground raids follow two weeks of intensive airstrikes by Israel on targets in Lebanon.
Israel said intense fighting erupted with Hezbollah in south Lebanon after its paratroops and commandos launched raids there, ahead of a widely expected ground incursion and after devastating airstrikes against Hezbollah’s leadership.
In a statement published on X, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said the “limited, localised and targeted ground raids” were based on “precise intelligence” against Hezbollah targets and infrastructure in villages close to the border.
The IDF said they pose an “immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel”.
The Israeli air force and artillery were supporting ground forces with precise strikes on military targets, the statement said.
A Lebanese security source told the Reuters news agency that Israeli units had crossed into Lebanon overnight for reconnaissance and probing operations.
Lebanese troops also pulled back from positions along the border, the source added. A Lebanese army spokesperson did not confirm or deny the movement.
Israel launched a strike on a building in Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian camp near Sidon in south Lebanon early on Tuesday, a Palestinian source and Lebanese media said.
It marked the first strike on the overcrowded camp, Lebanon’s largest of several Palestinian camps since cross-border hostilities broke out nearly a year ago.
Palestinian security officials said Israel was targeting Mounir Maqdah, commander of the Lebanese branch of the Palestinian Fatah movement’s military wing, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Maqdah’s fate is unknown.
The United Nations refugee agency provides services to nearly 50,000 refugees in the crowded camp, about 80km north of the border with Israel.
Huge blasts were also heard in Lebanon’s capital on Tuesday, with the Israeli military carrying out strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, security sources said.
Residents in the Lebanese border town of Aita al-Shaab reported heavy shelling and the sound of helicopters and drones overhead early on Tuesday.
Flares were repeatedly launched over the Lebanese border town of Rmeish, lighting up the night sky.
In Syria, three civilians were killed and nine others injured in an Israeli airstrike on the capital Damascus, Syrian state media said on Tuesday citing a military source.
Israel’s military said it does not comment on foreign media reports.
In Gaza, the civil defence authority said on Tuesday that Israeli bombardment of homes had killed 12 people in the central Nuseirat refugee camp.
Seven others were killed in Israeli strikes on a school sheltering displaced people east of Gaza City.
Israel vows to use ‘all means required’
Speaking earlier, Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant 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.
He also told troops: “We will use all the means that may be required – your forces, other forces, from the air, from the sea, and on land. Good luck.”
The assassination of — was one of the heaviest blows in decades to both Hezbollah and Iran.
After two weeks of intensive airstrikes and a string of assassinations of Hezbollah commanders, Israel has suggested ever more strongly that a land invasion is looming.
The intensive air strikes 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.
Hezbollah ‘ready for a ground engagement’
Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Qassem, in a first public speech since Israeli airstrikes killed Nasrallah, said on Monday that “the resistance forces are ready for a ground engagement”.
He said Hezbollah had continued to fire rockets as deep as 150km into Israeli territory.
The death toll from an Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese town of Ain Delb rose to 45, Lebanon’s health ministry said on Monday.
As speculation grew that the ground operation was imminent, an Israeli military spokesperson issued a statement on social media platform X, telling Israelis not to “spread irresponsible rumours” about troop movements and activities.
US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Israel had told the US it is conducting limited ground operations focused on Hezbollah infrastructure in Lebanon near the border.
On Tuesday (AEST), the US secretary of defence Lloyd Austin said he had spoken with Gallant.
“We agreed on the necessity of dismantling attack infrastructure along the border to ensure that Lebanese Hizballah cannot conduct October 7-style attacks on Israel’s northern communities,” Austin said on social media platform X.
Austin reaffirmed that a diplomatic resolution is required to ensure that civilians can return safely to their homes on both sides of the border, according to his statement.
“I reiterated the serious consequences for Iran in the event Iran chooses to launch a direct military attack against Israel,” he added.
Israel last week rejected a to give time for a diplomatic settlement that would allow displaced civilians on both sides to return home.
With additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
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