Israeli military launches ground raids: Soldiers cross border, target Hezbollah in southern Lebanon
The Israeli military says it has begun a “limited, localised” operation against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
It said it was carrying out “targeted ground raids” in villages close to the Israeli border. The targets, it said, pose an “immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel”.
It announced early on Tuesday the operation had been planned in recent months and was launched after approval by political leaders.
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Israel tells Lebanese civilians not to drive south of Litani River
Royce
The Israeli Defence Forces has warned Lebanese civilians against driving in areas south of the Litani River until further notice.
It came after warnings of “intense fighting” between the IDF and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon
“This warning is valid until further notice,” Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, said.
The warning suggests Israeli forces intend to attack areas south of the river, covering an area of around 850 sq km, which is home to some 20,000 residents.
The Litani River flows east to west around 20 miles north of the Israeli-Lebanese border.
-Daily Telegraph
Royce
Locals and rescue teams inspect the damage following an overnight Israeli airstrike on the Ain al-Helweh camp on the outskirts of the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon. Photo / AFP
IDF strikes Hezbollah ‘weapons, infrastructure’ sites in Beirut
Royce
The Israeli Defence Forces says it has made air strikes in the Dahiyeh area of Beirut against several Hezbollah sites, including weapons production facilities and other military infrastructure.
“The terrorist organisation Hezbollah intentionally builds its weapons production and military sites under the heart of Beirut and embeds them in population centres in the city,” the IDF said in a statement.
It also released a video on X it said were of those strikes.
- Daily Telegraph
Turkey's Erdogan says UN should recommend use of force if Israel not stopped
Royce
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said today that the United Nations General Assembly should recommend the use of force, in line with a resolution it passed in 1950, if the UN Security Council fails to stop Israel's attacks in Gaza and Lebanon.
Nato member Turkey has denounced Israel's devastating attack in Gaza against Palestinian militant group Hamas, and condemned its recent attacks in Lebanon targeting Hezbollah militants. It has halted all trade with Israel and applied to join a genocide case against Israel at the World Court, which Israel rejects.
"The UN General Assembly should rapidly implement the authority to recommend the use of force, as it did with the 1950 Uniting for Peace resolution, if the Security Council can't show the necessary will," Erdogan said after a cabinet meeting in Ankara.
The resolution says the UN General Assembly can step in if disagreements among the Security Council's five permanent veto-wielding powers - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - mean they fail to maintain international peace.
The Security Council is the only UN body that can normally make legally binding decisions, such as authorising use of force and imposing sanctions.
Erdogan also said he was sad to see Muslim countries failing to take a more active stance against Israel, urging them to take economic, diplomatic, and political measures against Israel to pressure it into accepting a ceasefire.
"For the peace of everyone in our region, from Muslim to Jew to Christian, we call on the international community and Muslim world to mobilise," Erdogan said, adding Israel's attacks would target Muslim countries too if it is not stopped soon.
-Reuters
Israeli strike targets Fatah commander
Tom Dillane
An Israeli strike in Lebanon early on Tuesday targeted Mounir Maqdah, a commander of the Lebanese branch of the Palestinian Fatah movement's military wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, according to two Palestinian security officials.
His fate was unknown.
The strike hit a building in the crowded Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp near the southern city of Sidon, the sources said.
It marked the first strike on the camp which is Lebanon's largest of several Palestinian camps since cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel broke out nearly a year ago.
Fatah is the mainstream Palestinian nationalist movement founded in 1965 by late leader Yasser Arafat. It is a secular party and the largest of the various factions that make up the Palestine Liberation Organisation. Hamas is not in the PLO.
James Wheeler
U.S. Secretary of Defense spoke with Israel's defense minister: Pentagon
Tom Dillane
Lloyd Austin in his talk with Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has 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 the US Department of Defense.
"They agreed on the necessity of dismantling attack infrastructure along the border to ensure that Lebanese Hezbollah cannot conduct October 7-style attacks on Israel's northern communities," the department said in a statement.
Reports of Israeli aerial attacks
Tennessy Weir
Kiwis needing urgent consular assistance call round-the-clock emergency line
Tennessy Weir
An MFAT spokesperson said Kiwis who needed urgent consular assistance should call their round-the-clock emergency line and urged people to shelter in place and follow local authorities’ instructions.
“For months, we have strongly urged New Zealanders not to travel to Lebanon, and for those that are there to leave. Many travellers have heeded this advice,” an MFAT spokeswoman told the Herald.
“MFAT is in daily contact with registered New Zealanders that remain in Lebanon.
“Since late last week, the main carrier operating flights out of Beirut has been Middle East Airlines.
Over 30 flights are operating daily, but there is significant demand for these, with few seats remaining. We encourage New Zealanders to continue working with airlines and their travel agent to secure departure bookings as they become available.”
There are 46 New Zealanders currently in Lebanon listed with SafeTravel.
Drone and rockets intercepted, Israel says
Tennessy Weir
The Israeli military said that rocket warning sirens were sounded in the area of Meron in northern Israel's Upper Galilee region after around 10 projectiles were detected crossing from Lebanon. It said some were intercepted and some fell "in open areas."
The military also said it had detected and intercepted a drone over the Mediterranean Sea, dozens of kilometres off the coast of central Israel.
- Reuters
Syrian TV presenter killed in strike on Damascus: state media
Tennessy Weir
A Syrian state television presenter was killed in an Israeli strike on the country's capital Damascus, Syrian state television reported early without providing further details.
Syrian air defences intercepted "hostile targets" over the vicinity of Damascus three times in a row in one night, following explosions that were heard in the capital, state media added.
When asked about the reported attack, the Israeli military said it does not comment on foreign media reports.
- Reuters
Hezbollah targets Israeli troop movements over the border
Tennessy Weir
Hezbollah issued a statement saying it targeted Israeli troop movements across from Lebanese border towns.
- Reuters
Large blasts sound in southern Beirut from Israeli strike
Tennessy Weir
Huge consecutive blasts were heard across the Lebanese capital just after midnight, Reuters witnesses said, as the Israeli military carried out strikes on the city's southern suburbs.
The Israeli military had warned an hour earlier that it would strike specific buildings in the typically densely populated southern suburbs, saying armed group Hezbollah was using them and telling residents to leave.
Many residents had fled the area in recent days after a spike in Israeli strikes but ended up sleeping in the streets of the city as shelters were full.
Families told Reuters they had struggled to find taxis to get them out of the district fast enough.
Fears of a ground invasion spiked, with Lebanese troops pulling back from the border with Israel and a US official saying Israeli soldiers looked set to enter Lebanon.
- Reuters
What we know so far: Israeli incursion into Lebanon may be imminent
Tennessy Weir
Indications grew that Israel was on the verge of sending ground troops into Lebanon, two weeks into an assault on the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia. Israel's armed forces declared the northern Israeli areas of Metula, Misgav Am and Kfar Giladi - near the border with Lebanon - a closed military zone.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the next phase of the war would begin soon, and support the aim of bringing home Israelis who have fled Hezbollah rockets during nearly a year of border warfare.
A US official who spoke on condition of anonymity told Reuters on Monday the positioning of Israeli troops suggested a ground incursion could be imminent.
The moves followed the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last week in Israeli air strikes on Beirut.
The death of Nasrallah - the most powerful leader in Tehran's "Axis of Resistance" against Israeli and US interests in the Middle East - was one of the heaviest blows in decades to both Hezbollah and Iran.
The Washington Post cited an unidentified US official as saying Israel had already told the US the operation would be smaller than its 2006 war against Hezbollah and focus on border security.
Asked about the reports, President Joe Biden, who has so far had little success urging Israel to rein in its assaults on Hezbollah or on the Hamas militia in Gaza, called for a ceasefire.
- Reuters
An Israeli airstrike that targeted a neighbourhood in Beirut
Tennessy Weir
Photo / AFP
Grave warning for Australians as Israel invades Lebanon
Tennessy Weir
Australia is working to get its citizens out of Lebanon as Israel launches a ground invasion.
Those in Lebanon are being assisted by the Department of Foreign Affairs to secure commercial airline tickets as the risk of the international airport shutting heightens.
- AAP
Israeli military crosses border, begins ground raids in Lebanon
Natasha Gordon
The Israeli military says it has begun a “limited, localised” operation against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
It said it was carrying out “targeted ground raids” in villages close to the Israeli border. The targets, it said, pose an “immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel”.
STORY CONTINUES
Earlier, Lebanese troops pulled back from the border as a ground invasion looked imminent.
The escalation came just days after Israel killed the head of Hezbollah.
The Israeli military had warned residents to evacuate areas near buildings it said contained Hezbollah infrastructure south of the Lebanese capital. At least two Israeli strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs, a security source said.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant earlier told council heads the next phase of the war along Lebanon’s southern border would begin soon, and would support the aim of bringing home Israelis who had fled Hezbollah rockets during nearly a year of border warfare.
“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,” he told troops.
Lebanese troops pulled back from positions along Lebanon’s southern border with Israel to about 5km north of the border, a Lebanese security source told Reuters.
A Lebanese army spokesperson did not confirm or deny the movement.
Lebanon’s army has historically stayed on the sidelines of major conflicts with Israel, and in the past year of hostilities has not fired on the Israeli military.
Amal Al-Hourani, mayor of Jdeidet Marjayoun, a Christian-majority Lebanese village less than 10km from the border, told Reuters two locals had received calls apparently from the Israeli Army telling them to evacuate the area as soon as possible.
The Israeli military declared the areas around the communities of Metula, Misgav Am, and Kfar Giladi in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon as a closed military zone and said entry to the areas was prohibited.
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.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Israel had told the US it was conducting limited ground operations focused on Hezbollah infrastructure in Lebanon, near the border.
Israel last week rejected a proposal by the US and France calling for a 21-day ceasefire to give time for a diplomatic settlement that would allow displaced civilians on both sides to return home.
US President Joe Biden, who has so far had little success urging Israel to rein in its assaults on Hezbollah or on the Hamas militia in Gaza, called for a ceasefire.
“I’m more worried than you might know and I’m comfortable with them stopping,” Biden told reporters when asked if he was comfortable with Israeli plans for a cross-border incursion. “We should have a ceasefire now.”
Friday’s assassination of Hassan Nasrallah - the most powerful leader in Tehran’s “Axis of Resistance” against Israeli and US interests in the Middle East - was one of the heaviest blows in decades to both Hezbollah and Iran, and followed two weeks of intensive airstrikes.
Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Qassem, in a first public speech since Nasrallah’s death, said “the resistance forces are ready for a ground engagement”.
The Israeli airstrikes have eliminated several Hezbollah commanders but also killed about 1000 civilians and forced one million to flee their homes, according to the Lebanese Government.
At least 95 people were killed and 172 wounded in Israeli strikes on Lebanon’s southern regions, the eastern Bekaa Valley, and Beirut in the past 24 hours, Lebanon’s health ministry said on Tuesday.
Nasrallah’s killing, along with the assassinations and systematic attacks on the group’s communications devices, constitute the biggest blow to the Shi’ite movement since Iran created it in 1982 to fight Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hezbollah’s main backer, Iran, that “there is nowhere we will not go to protect our people and protect our country”.