Israel attacks Lebanese army

BEIRUT: Hezbollah said its fighters blocked an attempt by Israeli forces on Thursday to cross the border into Lebanon. It follows several incursion attempts by Israeli forces over the past two days.

Meanwhile a Lebanese army and Lebanese Red Cross convoy was hit by Israeli fire during an evacuation and rescue mission in the border town of Taybeh in the Marjeyoun district. One soldier was killed, and another was wounded along with four Red Cross workers.

A security source told Arab News “the operation carried out by the army was coordinated in advance with (the UN Interim Force in Lebanon), which usually informs the Israeli side.”

Lebanese army forces elsewhere were also fired upon. The army command said: “A soldier was martyred as Israel targeted a Lebanese army center in Bint Jbeil” and “personnel there responded to the sources of the fire.”

The confrontation between Hezbollah and the Israeli army followed clashes on Wednesday during which eight Israeli soldiers were killed as they crossed the border to target Hezbollah positions.

Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV quoted a source from the group as saying its “fighters are targeting gatherings of enemy soldiers and advance lines with artillery shells and rockets along the front edge inside the occupied territories, achieving direct hits. These precision strikes have so far thwarted any progress by Israeli elite forces into Lebanese territory on multiple fronts in southern Lebanon using various types of weapons and explosives.”

Hezbollah said its “fighters repelled an Israeli attempt to advance at the Fatima Gate in the morning, using artillery shells.” This apparently signaled a military recovery after Israeli strikes that culminated in the assassination of the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, a week ago.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army intensified airstrikes on areas it believes to be Hezbollah strongholds and weapon-storage sites. Warplanes again targeted the neighborhoods of Jamous and Sfeir, and Moawad Street in Beirut’s southern suburbs, destroying a building used by Hezbollah’s media relations office. The army said it attacked “targets related to Hezbollah’s intelligence in Beirut.”

The town of Maaysrah, in the Keserwan heights in Mount Lebanon, was once again hit by airstrikes, and for the first time the predominantly Shiite town of Kayfoun was also targeted, specifically the Aley district.

In a “precise strike” on Wednesday night, an Israeli drone hit a building used by Hezbollah’s Islamic Health Organization in the densely populated Bachoura area deep within Beirut, Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said. The area was said to be popular with Hezbollah supporters and contain many of the group’s social offices. The attack caused extensive damage to the residential building and surrounding area, including Sunni community graves nearby.

It emerged that the army used phosphorus bombs in the attack. The Ministry of Health said nine people were killed in the strike and 14 injured. It said DNA tests had to be used to identify victims. The Islamic Health Organization said seven of its paramedics were among the dead.

The Disaster Risk Management Unit in Tyre district reported that “municipalities have buried 20 victims of shelling, from border towns, in the city of Tyre as a temporary measure.”

Southern Lebanon, from which most people have fled to safer locations, remains exposed to Israeli shelling and airstrikes. Further north, the Baalbek-Hermel region has also been targeted as indirect Israeli threats extend to the Masnaa border crossing with Syria.

The Israeli army said on Thursday that “Hezbollah is using this border crossing to transport combat equipment into Lebanon.” Adraee, the army spokesperson, urged Lebanese officials to “conduct strict inspections of trucks crossing through civilian crossings and return any trucks and vehicles carrying combat equipment.”

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati asked army chief Gen. Joseph Aoun and the acting director general of general security, Maj. Gen. Elias Al-Baysari, to put tighter security measures in place on the border between Lebanon and Syria.

The Israeli army issued an urgent warning to the residents of dozens of towns in the Nabatieh and Al-Zahrani districts advising them to evacuate their homes quickly and move north of the Awali River.

People were also displaced from Beirut’s southern suburbs toward the capital, and from western, central and northern Bekaa toward Tripoli and Akkar in northern Lebanon, causing overcrowding as growing numbers flock toward areas covering less than half of Lebanon’s total land area.

The Lebanese Ministerial Emergency Committee said it “recorded about 134 airstrikes in the past two days, bringing the total number to 8,704. In the past 24 hours, 55 people were killed and 156 were wounded, bringing the total death toll to 1,928, with 9,290 injured, including hundreds of children and women, since Oct. 8, 2023.”

Minister of Health Firass Abiad said the death toll among medical and emergency crews caused by Israeli strikes has risen to 97. The Ministerial Emergency Committee said the number of people displaced from their homes “has risen to 1.2 million.” Between Sept. 23 and 30, the Lebanese General Security recorded 234,023 Syrians and 76,269 Lebanese crossing the border into Syria.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah continued to target military sites in northern Israel, including Ramim barracks, Misgav Am, Al-Raheb, and the settlements of Sasa, Al-Bassah and Kfar Giladi.

The Israeli army said it “observed the launching of around 40 rockets from Lebanon toward Western Galilee, intercepting some while others fell in the area.”

As political and diplomatic efforts to halt the war in Lebanon continued, the country’s representatives at the UN filed a formal complaint with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Security Council about incursions of Israeli forces into Lebanese territory.

They said: “Israel has violated the withdrawal line (the Blue Line) and disregarded the essence and purpose of Resolution 1701,” which was adopted by the Security Council in 2006 with the aim of ending the war that year between Israel and Hezbollah.

They questioned “Israel’s repeated calls for the implementation of this resolution, which it has persistently violated since it was issued in 2006.”

They reiterated Lebanon’s “full commitment to the implementation of all Security Council resolutions, especially Resolution 1701, and the extension of the state’s authority over all Lebanese territory within the internationally recognized borders.”

Minister of Defense Maurice Sleem said: “The Lebanese state has agreed to a ceasefire and the international community must convince the enemy now.”

Prime Minister Mikati, parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt met on Wednesday evening and affirmed “Lebanon’s commitment to the call issued by the UN General Assembly for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon.”