The Israeli army said Tuesday it has intensified its ground offensive in southern Lebanon, while the Islamist Hezbollah militia said it has aimed numerous rockets at northern Israel.
The salvo was fired at several targets in northern Israel, the Iranian-backed militia said in a statement. The Israeli military said air raid sirens had been issued at several locations near the border with Lebanon.
About 180 rockets targeted Israel’s Galilee region and Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city, but most were intercepted, the military said. Some rockets also hit the outskirts of Haifa, the report said.
The Times of Israel described it as the largest rocket attack on the port city since Hezbollah began firing into northern Israel a year ago.
According to security sources in Lebanon, Israeli ground forces captured a Hezbollah military post during their advance into Lebanese territory.
Hezbollah confirmed that an Israeli flag had been raised at the post near the town of Maroun al-Ras.
Lebanese security sources said Israeli military vehicles were spotted near soldiers stationed there as part of the UN observer mission UNIFIL. There was no immediate confirmation from the Israeli military.
A spokesperson for the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL), Andrea Tenenti, told dpa that armed clashes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah took place very close to UNIFIL positions.
“We are in the middle of it,” Tenenti said, adding that the fighting is endangering the peacekeepers.
UN Secretary General António Guterres later said that “the Israeli tanks and other armed elements that were around position 652 have left.”
Meanwhile, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said it had deployed a fourth division in southern Lebanon. A division is a large military unit consisting of several brigades and usually containing thousands of soldiers.
Reports indicate that three other Israeli divisions are currently deployed in the central and eastern sectors of the front.
Hezbollah has launched attacks on Israel over the past year, claiming it was acting “in solidarity” with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The regular exchange of fire has cost lives on both sides.
Israel’s current goal is to push the militia away from the border, allowing about 60,000 evacuated Israelis to return to their homes.
Top commander of Hezbollah probably killed in attack on Beirut
Hashem Safieddine, the leading candidate to succeed Hezbollah’s late head Hassan Nasrallah, is presumed dead, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said.
“Hezbollah is a headless organization – Nasrallah has been eliminated and his successor is likely eliminated as well,” Gallant said, according to his office. The minister did not mention Safieddine, the head of Hezbollah’s Executive Council, by name.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared in a video address released Tuesday evening that Israel has “eliminated thousands of terrorists, including Nasrallah himself, Nasrallah’s successor and his successor’s successor.” He also did not mention Safieddine.
There is no one left in the militia to make decisions, Gallant added.
The senior Hezbollah leader was reportedly the target of a large-scale Israeli bombardment in Beirut last week.
Earlier, the Israeli Air Force said it killed Suhail Hussein Husseini in a targeted attack on Monday. “Husseini played a crucial role in arms transfers between Iran and Hezbollah,” the military said.
Israel has been waging war against Islamist Hamas and other groups in Gaza since militants carried out a brutal massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023, killing more than 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages.
About 42,000 people have been killed since then, according to Palestinian and UN figures.
Hezbollah supports ceasefire negotiations
Hezbollah’s deputy leader expressed openness to a ceasefire with Israel on Tuesday.
In a televised speech, Naim Qassem said he supported efforts by parliament speaker and Hezbollah ally Nabih Berri to broker a ceasefire to the fighting in Lebanon.
He said he trusted Berri in the negotiations. Berri has reportedly been holding ceasefire talks with Arab and foreign officials visiting Lebanon since last week.
But Qassem also said: “If the enemy (Israel) continues his war, the battlefield will decide.” Hezbollah would not beg for a solution. “We will continue, we will make sacrifices.”
At least twenty Palestinian fighters killed in Gaza
The Israeli army said on Tuesday it had killed at least 20 armed Palestinian fighters in northern Gaza.
In the Jabalia region, where troops launched a new ground offensive on Sunday, weapons stockpiles were also attacked, with air support provided to ground forces.
The IDF also reported continued fighting in central and southern Gaza. The information could not be independently verified.
UN representatives fear Gaza-like conditions in Lebanon
UN organizations fear that the people of Lebanon may face the same fate as those in the Gaza Strip as a result of continued bombardments by Israel.
Jeremy Laurence, spokesman for the UN Human Rights Office in Geneva, said the same military methods are used in both war zones. “The destruction in Lebanon is unbelievable, just like in Gaza.”
Matthew Hollingworth, director of the World Food Program in Lebanon, said the organization is currently supporting about 200,000 people a day with food, and that number is expected to rise to 1 million.
Hollingworth, who worked in the Gaza Strip until June, said people in Lebanon were afraid that what had happened to people in Gaza could happen to them too.
“From the moment I wake up until I sleep, I think about the possibility that we could end up in the same spiral of doom,” Hollingworth said.
Red Cross sends more aid to Lebanon
The German Red Cross (DRK) said it was sending a plane with 150 rescue backpacks for the treatment of serious injuries from Cologne to Beirut.
More than 2,100 people have been killed in Lebanon since the escalation of clashes between the Israeli army and Hezbollah militia a year ago, and more than 10,000 have been injured, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
