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Israel begins ‘limited’ Lebanon ground offensive; no clashes yet

Tel Aviv/Beirut, Oct. 1, (dpa/GNA) – Panic was spreading in southern Lebanon on Tuesday after the Israeli military launched a “limited, localized” ground operation against Hezbollah targets, while the Iran-backed militia said there had been no direct clashes yet.

“All of our fighters are ready for a real confrontation,” a Hezbollah source told dpa.

Early on Tuesday, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) had announced the start of “targeted ground raids based on precise intelligence,” in a post on social media platform X.

The targets in villages close to the border “pose an immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel,” it added, noting that the military was following a “methodical plan,” which it had trained and prepared for in recent months.

The IDF and the air force were supporting ground forces with “precise strikes” on military targets in the area, it added.

Chaos broke out in the affected areas following a renewed Israeli call for Lebanese citizens to head north of the Alawi river, around 60 kilometres from the border. People were seen packing their belongings and heading towards Beirut.

Northern Arrows

Dubbed Northern Arrows, it is Israel’s first ground offensive into Lebanon since the 2006 war.

Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, triggered by the unprecedented October 7 attacks by the Palestinian Islamist Hamas organization, has been accompanied by almost a year of cross-border skirmishes with Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.

Last week, Israel launched a massive aerial campaign on targets across Lebanon, with the stated aim of pushing back Hezbollah to enable the return of tens of thousands of residents evacuated from northern Israel.

The Israeli army had previously warned Lebanon’s population against travelling south of the Litani River, which is about 30 kilometres from the border.

According to a UN resolution, Hezbollah fighters are not allowed south of this line. However, after the 2006 war, militants gradually returned to the area.

Ahead of the ground incursion, the regular Lebanese army withdrew from the demarcation line. Lebanon’s military has maintained a neutral stance in the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.

Alarm in Tel Aviv

Air raid sirens sounded in the greater Tel Aviv area on Tuesday, with muffled explosions heard in the city centre, residents reported. The Israeli army said the alarm was triggered by projectiles fired from Lebanon.

The army confirmed that rocket parts had struck a highway near Tel Aviv. A bus driver was moderately hurt and a motorist slightly injured, according to the rescue service Magen David Adom.

Around 10 rockets were intercepted in the Meron area in northern Israel in the early morning, the army said, adding that Hezbollah also fired several missiles at the area around the border town of Metulla and the town of Avivim.

Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attacks on Metulla, saying it had targeted groups of soldiers.

UN condemnation

The United Nations’ peacekeeping force in Lebanon condemned Israel’s ground offensive, saying it violates the country’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity” and would “only lead to more violence and more bloodshed.”

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which has been monitoring the situation on the Israeli-Lebanese border, said it had been notified by the Israeli army a day earlier of “their intention to undertake limited ground incursions into Lebanon.”

“Despite this dangerous development, peacekeepers remain in position,” UNIFIL said in its statement.

The international community has been urging de-escalation amid the recent Israeli strikes and Hezbollah retaliations, but ceasefire efforts have so far been rejected by both sides.

Lebanon fears that up to a million people could be internally displaced due to the Israeli attacks, especially in the south and the east of the country, as well as in Beirut. The country is in the midst of a debilitating economic crisis.

Call for donations

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) issued an appeal for donations of $426 million to care for displaced and homeless people.

The money is intended to support 1 million people for three months.

Since October 2023, an estimated 1 million people have been displaced or otherwise affected by the conflict, the UN office reported.

At least 1,000 people had been killed since the start of the latest Israeli offensive two weeks ago, it said.

Deadly strike on Palestinian camp

Six people were killed in an Israeli attack on the Palestinian refugee camp Ain al-Hilwah near the Lebanese coastal city of Sidon, according to Lebanese sources.

Lebanese security sources said the overnight attack was aimed at the Palestinian commander, Munir Al-Makdah. However, he survived the attack, they said.

The Israeli army did not immediately comment on the strike.

Al-Makdah is a representative of the Al-Aqsa Brigades in Lebanon, the military arm of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement.

The Lebanese news agency NNA reported that his wife and son were among the victims.

With around 80,000 inhabitants, Ain al-Hilwah is the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. Most are refugees displaced by the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948 and their descendants.

US, Israel agreed on ‘dismantling’ Hezbollah sites

The US and Israel have agreed on the “necessity of dismantling attack infrastructure” along the Lebanon border, the Pentagon said after US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant.

The US and Israel had agreed on “the necessity of dismantling attack infrastructure along the border” to ensure Hezbollah could not conduct “October 7-style attacks on Israel’s northern communities,” a US statement said.

Austin had again assured Israel of Washington’s full support to defend itself against Iran-backed terrorist organizations, the Pentagon said.

GNA

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