Israeli military says it is carrying out ‘limited’ ground operation targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon

The Israeli military has begun a “limited, localised and targeted” ground operation against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, it has said, as it continued shelling areas close to the border and carrying out airstrikes on the capital, Beirut.

“The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] began limited, localised, and targeted ground raids based on precise intelligence against Hezbollah terrorist targets and infrastructure in southern Lebanon,” the military said in a statement on X early on Tuesday.

“These targets are located in villages close to the border and pose an immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel,” it continued, adding: “Operation ‘Northern Arrows’ will continue according to the situational assessment and in parallel to combat in Gaza and in other arenas.”

Lebanese media reported one strike targeted a building in Ain al-Hilweh refugee Palestinian camp near the southern city of Sidon early on Tuesday, with Al Jazeera reporting multiple casualties.

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Israel is yet to comment on the attack. Israeli media is reporting that Mounir Maqdah, who is reportedly a commander in the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and the purported target of the strike, was injured in the attack.

If confirmed, it marked the first strike on the overcrowded camp, Lebanon’s largest of several Palestinian camps, since hostilities broke out nearly a year ago.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed by an Israeli strike on Beirut on Friday, dealing a heavy blow to the militant group and raising fears that Israel might be preparing for a ground offensive in Lebanon, and that conflict could spread across the Middle East.

That followed two weeks of strikes which began with the deadly explosion of pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah members that killed dozens of people and injured thousands. Israel has since continued pounding Beirut and also launched strikes on Yemen and Syria.

Syria’s official news agency Sana said early on Tuesday the country’s air defence systems had intercepted three rounds of strikes in the Damascus area. State television said its news anchor, Safaa Ahmad, was killed “in the Israeli aggression” on Damascus, while Sana reported three civilians killed and nine others wounded. It was not clear if Ahmad was counted among the three and the reports could not be verified independently.

Tuesday’s statement from the IDF followed Israeli media reports that the country’s cabinet had approved the next stage of its operation in Lebanon after a meeting chaired by the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin later said he had spoken with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, and that the pair had “agreed on the necessity of dismantling [Hezbollah’s] attack infrastructure along the border”.

He also said the US was “well postured” to defend US personnel and allies and warned of “serious consequences for Iran” in the event of a direct attack on Israel, while also adding that “I reaffirmed that a diplomatic resolution is required to ensure that civilians can return safely to their homes on both sides of the border”.

Early on Tuesday, Lebanon’s health ministry said at least 95 people had been killed and 172 wounded in Israeli strikes on Lebanon’s southern regions, the eastern Bekaa Valley, and Beirut in the past 24 hours.

Hezbollah’s deputy leader, Naim Qassem, in a first public speech on Monday since Nasrallah’s death, said that “the resistance forces are ready for a ground engagement”. “We know that the battle may be long. We will win as we won in the liberation of 2006,” he said, referring to the 2006 war.

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Heavy shelling into Lebanon was taking place along the boundary in the area north of Kiryat Shmona, in an area where Israeli armour and infantry advanced into Lebanon during the 2006 war. Airstrikes continued in Beirut and in at least 10 locations across the south of the country, according to Lebanon’s state news agency.

The Israeli military declared areas of Metula, Misgav Am and Kfar Giladi in northern Israel a closed military zone.

The US president, Joe Biden, said earlier he was aware of Israel’s plans to launch an operation into Lebanon as he urged against such a move. “I’m more aware than you might know and I’m comfortable with them stopping,” he told reporters at the White House when asked if he was comfortable with Israeli plans for a cross-border incursion. “We should have a ceasefire now.”

The towns of Marjayoun, Wazzani and Khiam – which sit in a series of interlocking valleys overlooked by steep slopes – were being shelled on Monday night.

One resident in Marjayoun said that a local official had received a phone call ordering residents to evacuate but shelling had started before people could leave the town. “They called the mukhtar of Marjayoun, and told us we needed to evacuate. But we can’t move, the roads are filled with shelling and airstrikes,” the resident said.

An hour later, the road leading out of Marjayoun was hit by an Israeli airstrike and rendered inoperable, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.

The area, with its scattered villages, and scrubby landscape hiding bunkers and combat tunnels, has long been a base for Hezbollah fighters and was heavily fought over during the last war between Israel and Hezbollah 18 years ago.

Hezbollah said in a statement that it had targeted a group of Israeli soldiers who were in the “orchard” near the Lebanese border towns of Odaisseh and Kafr Kila, “achieving confirmed casualties”. Kafr Kila is one of the towns that borders the area that Israel declared a closed military zone on Monday.

Meanwhile, the Lebanese army said it was “repositioning and regrouping forces” amid reports it had withdrawn three miles from the country’s southern border. 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.

On Tuesday, reports emerged of US concern about Israel’s exit strategy in the wake of the ground operations. Jacob Magid, the Times of Israel US bureau chief, reported concern from the White House that the “IDF will get bogged down in the country or be drawn to expand the mission once it’s already in motion.”

Magid reports that a US official pointed to Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon which was characterised as a “limited incursion, but it turned into an 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon”.

Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli diplomat and critic of Benjamin Netanyahu, warned that any ground incursion could lead to the kind of deadly mission creep that had characterised the previous operations of 1982 – which helped spark the creation of Hezbollah and led to a 15-year Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon – and 2006.

Lebanon’s health ministry said on Sunday that more than 1,000 Lebanese have been killed and 6,000 wounded in the past two weeks, without saying how many were civilians. The government said 1 million people – a fifth of the population – have fled their homes.