Israel’s prime minister has urged the Lebanese people to throw out Hezbollah and avoid “destruction and suffering as we see in Gaza.”
Benjamin Netanyahu’s call came Tuesday as Israel expanded its invasion against Hezbollah by sending thousands more troops into a new zone in southwestern Lebanon. Fifty Hezbollah members were killed in airstrikes on Monday, the army said.
According to the Lebanese Health Ministry, 36 people have been killed and 150 injured in Israeli attacks in the past 24 hours.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah launched rocket attacks towards the Israeli port of Haifa for the third day in a row, wounding twelve people.
During a video address addressed to the people of Lebanon, Netanyahu said: “You have the chance to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering as we see in Gaza.
“I say to you, the people of Lebanon: Free your land from Hezbollah so that this war can end.”
Netanyahu also claimed that the Israeli army had killed the successor to former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, but the IDF later said it could not confirm Hashem Safieddine’s death.
Hezbollah has remained defiant despite three weeks of intense Israeli and other attacks that have killed more than 1,400 people and displaced another 1.2 million, according to Lebanese officials.
Earlier on Tuesday, Nasrallah’s former deputy Naim Qassem insisted that Hezbollah had overcome Israel’s recent “painful blows” and that its capabilities were “fine.”
Israel has gone on the offensive after nearly a year of cross-border fighting sparked by the war in Gaza, saying it wants to ensure the safe return of tens of thousands of residents of Israeli border areas displaced by rocket, rocket and drone attacks from Hezbollah.
Hostilities have steadily escalated since Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of Palestinians on October 8, 2023, the day after ally Hamas’ deadly attack on southern Israel.
On Tuesday morning, the IDF announced that reservists from the 146th Division had begun “limited, localized, targeted operational activities” in southwestern Lebanon.
It joined three existing army divisions that have been operating in central and eastern areas of southern Lebanon since the start of the invasion on September 30, bringing the total number of soldiers deployed to more than 15,000.
The IDF said troops had taken control of what it called a Hezbollah “battle complex” in the border village of Maroun al-Ras and published photos showing a loaded rocket launcher in an olive grove, as well as weapons and equipment inside. a residential building.
Drone footage, meanwhile, showed widespread destruction in the nearby village of Yarounwhich was an initial target of the invasion.
Meanwhile, the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon and the head of the UN peacekeeping force warned in a joint statement that the humanitarian impact of the conflict was “nothing short of catastrophic”.
The Lebanese government says as many as 1.2 million people have fled their homes in the past year. Nearly 180,000 people remain in approved centers for displaced persons.
In addition, more than 400,000 people have fled to war-torn Syria, including more than 200,000 Syrian refugees – a situation that the head of the UN refugee agency described as one of “tragic absurdity”.
The World Food Program said there was “extreme concern about Lebanon’s ability to continue feeding itself” as thousands of hectares of farmland had been burned or abandoned.
The IDF also said its aircraft carried out a new round of strikes on Tuesday against Hezbollah targets in the southern suburbs of Beirut, where the group has a strong presence, and other parts of Lebanon.
It was previously announced that a strike in the capital on Monday had killed the commander of Hezbollah’s headquarters, Suhail Husseini.
Hezbollah did not comment on the claim. But if confirmed, it would be the latest in a series of heavy blows inflicted by Israel on the group, with Hassan Nasrallah and most of his military commanders killed in similar recent attacks.
Hashem Safieddine, a top Hezbollah official widely expected to succeed his cousin Nasrallah as leader, has not been publicly heard since an Israeli airstrike reportedly targeted him in Beirut last Thursday.
IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said Tuesday evening that the military could not confirm claims by Netanyahu and Israel’s Defense Minister that Safieddine was killed in the attack, adding that the IDF was investigating the results of the operation.
Hezbollah’s deputy leader said in a defiant televised address from an undisclosed location on Tuesday that command and control was “solid” and “had no vacant positions”, citing attacks on Israel in recent days.
“We will hurt them and we will extend the time. Dozens of cities are within range of the resistance’s rockets. We assure you that our capabilities are excellent,” said Naim Qassem.
But for the first time he did not mention ending the war in Gaza as a condition, while Hezbollah had previously said it would not stop attacking Israel until the conflict in Gaza is over.
“We support the political efforts that Nabih Berri, speaker of the Lebanese parliament, is making towards a ceasefire,” Qassem said in a televised address.
“Once a ceasefire is reached, diplomacy can explore all other details.”
It was not clear whether this meant a change in Hezbollah’s position.
The speech coincided with the launch of more than 100 missiles towards the Bay of Haifa, as well as the Lower, Central and Upper Galilee regions.
The IDF said most of the rockets were intercepted. There were no serious casualties.
On Sunday evening there was a direct hit on Haifa – something that had not happened since Israel and Hezbollah last went to war in 2006.
