THE escalation of fighting Tensions between Israel and Hezbollah continued Saturday as the two sides exchanged strikes as the war in Gaza approaches a year old.
The Israeli military said its air forces struck Hezbollah fighters inside a mosque in southern Lebanon that it said was used as a command center to “plan and execute terrorist attacks against IDF troops and the State of Israel.
The mosque was adjacent to Salah Ghandour Hospital in the town of Bint Jbeil. The hospital said in a statement that Israeli forces bombed it after being warned to evacuate. The bombing “left nine medical and nursing staff injured, most seriously”, while most medical staff were evacuated. On Thursday, the World Health Organization said 28 health workers in Lebanon had been killed in the past 24 hours.
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At the same time, 12 Israeli airstrikes hit the southern suburbs of Beirut, including one that seriously damaged a large hall used by Hezbollah to hold ceremonies, the official Lebanese news agency said.
Later in the day, more strikes hit the region, from where tens of thousands of people have fled over the past two weeks.
Israeli airstrikes also hit areas of southern and eastern Lebanon, according to state media. At least six people were killed, according to ANI.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah said it launched a series of rockets at an Israeli air base near Haifa, about 30 miles from the Lebanese border. Israeli police said fragments of interceptors fell at several sites, but no injuries were reported, according to the Associated Press.
On Saturday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Israeli military had succeeded in destroying much of Hezbollah’s arsenal and changing the course of the war against the Iran-backed group.
“We destroyed a large part of the range of missiles and rockets built by Hezbollah over the years,” Netanyahu said in a televised speech, adding: “We changed the course of the war and the balance of war”.
Israel has greatly expanded its strikes on Lebanon in recent weeks after nearly a year of exchanges of fire with the Hezbollah supported by Iran – long designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Israel and many other countries. The Israeli army is carrying out nightly bombings in the southern suburbs of Beirut, once densely populated and a stronghold of Hezbollah. During the night, a military spokesperson issued three alerts for residents to be evacuated.
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Nearly a week of Israeli ground operations in southern Lebanon, near Israel’s northern border, and two weeks of airstrikes there and in southern Beirut – two Hezbollah strongholds – had killed more than 2,000 peoplesaid the Ministry of Health. More than a million people have been driven from their homes, including tens of thousands under Israeli evacuation orders in nearly 100 towns and villages near the border.
Hezbollah began launching these attacks in support of its ideological ally Hamas, which is also backed by Iran, a day after Hamas launched the ongoing war. war in Gaza with its October 7, 2023 terrorist attack against Israel. The Israeli military says Hezbollah militants have fired more than 10,000 rockets across the border since October 8, 2023. The vast majority of them were intercepted by Israel’s advanced missile defense systems.
Netanyahu also criticized French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday for calling for an end to arms deliveries to Israel.
“As Israel fights the forces of barbarism led by Iran, all civilized countries should stand firmly with Israel. Yet President Macron and other Western leaders are now calling for arms embargoes against Israel,” Netanyahu said in a statement. issued by his office.
Earlier this week, Macron called on Israel to quickly end its military operations in Lebanon because “too many civilians have already become victims.”
Israel carries out more ground raids, hits northern Lebanon
THE Israeli military said Saturday that its special forces were carrying out ground raids against Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon, destroying missiles, launch pads, watchtowers and weapons storage facilities. The army said troops also dismantled tunnel shafts that Hezbollah used to approach the Israeli border.
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Some 1.2 million people have been driven from their homes since Israel intensified its strikes in late September in a bid to cripple Hezbollah and drive it away from the two countries’ shared border. On Tuesday, Israel launched what it called a limited ground operation in southern Lebanon.
Nine Israeli soldiers have been killed in recent days in close combat in this area saturated with weapons and explosives, the army said.
Elsewhere, the Israeli army struck a Palestinian refugee camp in the heart of northern Lebanon for the first time.
The attack on the Beddawi camp near the northern city of Tripoli killed an official from Hamas’s military wing as well as his wife and two young daughters, the Palestinian militant group said in a statement. press release. Hamas later said another member of its military wing had been killed in an Israeli strike in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.
The Israeli army said it had killed two senior members of Hamas’ military wing in Lebanon, including one near Tripoli.
Americans try to leave Lebanon
The U.S. government has warned Americans not to travel to Lebanon since mid-September and urged all citizens in the country to leave the country via commercial routes. On Saturday evening, the US State Department helped approximately 600 US citizens, permanent residents and their families leave Lebanon on flights organized by the agency.
Other countries are also working to evacuate their residents from Lebanon. Germany evacuated 460 citizens aboard German military flights, while a Dutch military transport plane transported more than 100 citizens out of Lebanon. Belgian, Finnish and Irish citizens were also repatriated on this flight.
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“It’s great that these people are safely back in the Netherlands. It’s been a tense time for them,” said Christiaan Rebergen, secretary general of the Foreign Ministry, after they landed on Friday.
Fighting continues in Gaza
Palestinian medical authorities say Israeli strikes in northern and central Gaza early Saturday killed at least nine people, including two children.
A strike hit a group of people in the northern town of Beit Hanoun, killing at least five people, including two children, according to the health ministry’s ambulance and emergency service.
Another strike hit a house in the northern part of the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing at least four people, Awda hospital said. The strike also left a number of people injured, according to the statement.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strikes, but has long accused Hamas of operating from civilian areas.
Earlier in the day, the Israeli military warned residents in parts of central Gaza to evacuate, saying its forces would soon operate there in response to Palestinian militants.
The warnings cover areas along a strategic corridor in central Gaza, which was at the heart of obstacles to a ceasefire deal earlier this summer. The army warned Palestinians in areas of the Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps, located along the Netzarim corridor, to evacuate to an area along the Gaza coast called Muwasi, which the army designated as humanitarian zone. It is unclear how many Palestinians currently live in areas affected by the order, parts of which have already been evacuated.
Nearly 42,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza during the nearly year-long war, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths.
