Israel said that dozens of attacks on Monday had targeted more than 300 Hezbollah locations.
Despite calls for restraint from other countries, the Israeli military hit Hezbollah targets in south and east Lebanon on Monday and threatened to carry out further strikes. Lebanese citizens were advised to avoid the area.
The cross-border gunfire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah has been going on for about a year, but the strikes that have been going on since the weekend are the strongest since Israel and Palestinian Hamas terrorists launched their battle in the Gaza Strip on October 7.
Israel said that dozens of attacks on Monday had targeted more than 300 Hezbollah locations.
In a first-of-its-kind plea to Lebanon, Israel military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari advised citizens to steer clear of any prospective Hezbollah targets since strikes will “go on for the near future.”
Hagari declared that Israel’s armed forces “will carry out (more) comprehensive and accurate strikes against terror targets that are extensively dispersed throughout Lebanon.”
For their own protection, he implored bystanders “to immediately move out of harm’s way.”
Strong political and military force in Lebanon, Hezbollah, claims to be working in “support” of Hamas.
UN chief Antonio Guterres issued a dire warning against Lebanon turning into “another Gaza” and declared that it was “clear that both sides are not interested in a ceasefire” ahead of the organization’s yearly General Assembly.
The official National News Agency of Lebanon alleged that there were “intense raids” in the Bekaa Valley to the east, resulting in the death of a shepherd, and that there were “more than 80 air strikes in half an hour” that targeted south Lebanon.
Hezbollah announced it had lost a fighter, although it did not elaborate.
Hospitals in the south and east were instructed to cease all non-urgent surgery “to make space to treat the wounded” after the health ministry reported 34 injuries.
The minister of education announced a two-day closure of schools in the southern suburbs of Beirut as well as in the east and south.
Fireworks and smoke plumes rose into the sky as a result of explosions near Baalbek in the east.
“Evacuate quickly.”
Wafaa Ismail, 60, a housewife from the town of Zawtar in south Lebanon, stated, “We sleep and wake up to bombardment.” That is the current state of our lives.
According to local media and residents, Tyre’s suburbs were also struck by strikes.
According to NNA, Israel has left Lebanese people phone messages instructing them “to quickly evacuate.”
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, declared on Sunday that Hezbollah has suffered “a series of blows on Israel that it could have never imagined.”
Naim Qassem, the deputy leader of Hezbollah, stated that the organization was prepared for “all military possibilities” and that it was in a “new phase, namely an open reckoning” with Israel.
Both men made their remarks in the wake of rocket assaults that damaged the region around Haifa, a significant city on Israel’s north shore, and compelled Israelis to seek refuge.
After over a year of the Gaza War, which was started by Hamas’s attack on Israel, Netanyahu declared, “No country can tolerate attacks on its citizens,” as Israel shifted its attention to Hezbollah.
Hundreds of individuals, largely fighters, have died in Lebanon since the almost daily border clashes started in October, while scores more have died in Israel and the Golan Heights.
Israeli officials said they are working to make sure their citizens can return home safely, despite the fact that tens of thousands of people have abandoned their homes on both sides.
The objectives of the military action, which is presently simply a “aerial campaign,” were described on Monday by an Israeli military official, who asked not to be further identified in accordance with military regulations.
The initial objective is to “degrade threats” posed by Hezbollah. According to the official, the second objective is to drive them back from the border, and the last one is to demolish any infrastructure that Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force has constructed close to the border.
Call for a ceasefire
International powers have pleaded with both sides to retreat from the verge of full-scale conflict.
Najib Mikati, the prime minister of Lebanon, appealed to the UN and “powerful nations” to stop Israel’s “destructive plan that aims to destroy Lebanese villages and towns.”
Leading arms supplier to Israel, the United States, according to President Joe Biden, stated his administration is “going to do everything we can to keep a wider war from breaking out.”
Russia expressed “extreme concern” about the possibility of an escalation on Monday.
China on Monday urged its citizens to leave Israel, following the European Union and Britain’s emphasis on the necessity of a ceasefire.
Hezbollah rocket fire reached Kiryat Bialik, close to Haifa, despite Israel’s advanced air defenses. Over the weekend, the structure was destroyed by fire, another was littered with shrapnel, and cars were set on fire.
Elite leadership destroyed
Analysts claim that this past week inflicted a severe blow to Hezbollah.
According to the analysts, the organization’s ability to fight has not been completely destroyed despite deadly attacks that destroyed the leadership of its elite unit and targeted its communications.
Ibrahim Aqil, the leader of the Radwan Force, was killed on Friday by an Israeli airstrike near Hezbollah’s stronghold in southern Beirut.
According to Lebanon’s health ministry, 45 persons were killed in the hit, many of them civilians and other Hezbollah leaders.
The coordinated communications device explosions on Tuesday and Wednesday left 39 people dead and nearly 3,000 injured; Hezbollah blamed Israel for the strikes in Beirut.
Hezbollah claimed that as “an initial response,” it fired missiles at Israeli military industrial centers and an air base near Haifa.
The Israel-Hezbollah flare-up “negatively affects” the Gaza ceasefire attempts because there is “lack of political will on the Israeli side,” according to Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, who spoke to AFP.
Netanyahu’s detractors in Israel have charged him with prolonging the conflict.
Egypt has been attempting to mediate a truce with Qatar and the US for several months.
1,205 persons, primarily civilians, were murdered in Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli numbers that also includes hostages slain in captivity.
Out of the 251 captives that the militants also took, 97 are being held captive in Gaza, 33 of whom the Israeli military claims are deceased.
The health ministry of the Hamas-run enclave in Gaza has released numbers showing that at least 41,431 individuals have died as a result of Israel’s retaliatory military attack, the majority of them were civilians. The UN has certified the numbers as accurate.
AFP
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