BEIRUT (AP) – The Israeli military on Thursday warned people to evacuate cities and other communities in southern Lebanon north of the United Nations-declared buffer zone, which was launched earlier this week against the militant group Hezbollah. He suggested that there was a possibility of expanding ground operations. .
Israel has called on its citizens to leave the regional capital, Nabatiyeh, and other communities north of the Litani River, which form the northern edge of the border zone established by the United Nations Security Council after the two countries went to war in 2006. Both sides blame Israel. Other items that violate the resolution.
At least nine Israeli soldiers have been killed in clashes with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, and Israel announced the launch of a limited ground invasion earlier this week. Meanwhile, the region was bracing for Israeli retaliation following an Iranian ballistic missile attack.
Strike kills and injures first responders
The World Health Organization warns that 28 health workers have been killed in Lebanon in the past day, 30 health facilities have been closed in the south and five hospitals in Beirut have been partially or fully evacuated. reported that access is restricted.
Lebanon’s health minister said the Israeli attack, which hit nine hospitals and 45 medical centers, violated international law and treaties.
“This is a war crime, there is no doubt about it,” Firas Aviad said. “International law is clear to protect these people, the first responders. Who gave Israel the right to be both judge and executioner?”
The Lebanese Red Cross said an Israeli airstrike injured four Lebanese army paramedics who were evacuating injured people from the south, and killed one Lebanese army soldier. A convoy near the village of Taybeh accompanied by the Lebanese army was targeted on Thursday, it said, despite coordinating actions with UN peacekeepers. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Another Lebanese soldier was killed by Israeli artillery fire at a military post in the southern town of Bint Jubeir, the Lebanese army said in a counterattack. A Lebanese security official, speaking on condition of anonymity in accordance with regulations, said a military post had come under shelling.
An Israeli airstrike late Wednesday on an apartment building in central Beirut killed nine people, including seven civilian first responders linked to Hezbollah. Since late September, Israel has been carrying out attacks in areas of the country where the militants have a strong presence, but rarely in the center of the capital.
There was no warning before the strike, which hit apartment buildings near the United Nations headquarters, the prime minister’s office and parliament buildings late Wednesday.
After the airstrike in Beirut, residents reported a sulfur-like smell, and the Lebanese state news agency accused Israel of using phosphorus, without providing evidence, which is a violation of international law. Human rights groups have accused Israel in the past of using white phosphorus incendiary devices against towns and villages in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military did not respond to requests for comment.
Hezbollah has an armed force of tens of thousands of fighters, but it also has a network of political campaigns and civilian charities.
Fighting intensifies in southern Lebanon
The Israeli military said Thursday that it had struck about 200 Hezbollah targets across Lebanon, including weapons storage facilities and observation posts. The airstrike killed at least 15 Hezbollah fighters.
Hezbollah said its fighters detonated a roadside bomb, killing and wounding soldiers as Israeli forces entered the Lebanese border village of Maroun el-Ras. Neither side’s claims could be independently verified.
So far, ground clashes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants have been confined to a narrow area along the border.
But hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes as Israel warned people to evacuate dozens of villages and towns in the south and move to areas much further north, about 60 kilometers (36 miles) from the border. I was chased. than the Litani River.
Under UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, the militants withdrew north of Litani, and the Lebanese army, along with UN peacekeepers, moved through the border area. I was supposed to be on patrol.
Neither the Lebanese army nor its peacekeepers have been able to force Hezbollah into any agreement by force, and Israel claims it has built extensive military infrastructure in towns and villages near the border in defiance of the resolution. Lebanon accused Israel of violating other parts of the resolution.
Israel said it was targeting Hezbollah after nearly a year of rocket attacks that began on Oct. 8 and forced some 60,000 Israelis to flee their northern communities. Israel has carried out retaliatory attacks over the past year, displacing tens of thousands of people on the Lebanese side.
In recent weeks, Israeli military attacks in Lebanon have killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and several of his top officials. Hundreds more airstrikes have killed at least 1,276 people in large parts of Lebanon since mid-September, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. Nearly 2,000 people have been killed and more than 9,000 injured in Lebanon since fighting began nearly a year ago.
Most of the recent attacks have taken place in areas where Hezbollah has a strong presence, such as Beirut’s southern suburbs known as Dahieh. But Israel has also carried out attacks in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, including an attack in central Beirut earlier this week that killed three members of a Palestinian leftist militant group.
Concerns about war escalating rise after Iranian missile attack
Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels said they launched two drones over Tel Aviv overnight. The military said it spotted two drones off the coast of the bustling metropolitan area, one of which was shot down and another that fell into the Mediterranean Sea.
Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis are part of the Iranian-led Axis of Resistance, which also includes militant groups in Syria and Iraq. They have united with the Palestinians to launch attacks on Israel, eliciting retaliation in a cycle in which they have repeatedly threatened to spark a broader war.
The region is seen as once again on the brink of such a conflict after Tuesday’s Iranian missile attack on Iran’s Revolutionary Guards commander Nasrallah and Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who were accompanying The country announced that it was a response to the killing of , was killed in an explosion in Tehran in July that was widely blamed on Israel.
Israel and the United States said there would be serious consequences for the missile attack, which left two people lightly injured and one Palestinian killed in the occupied West Bank. The United States has rushed military assets to the region to support Israel.
President Joe Biden said Thursday he does not expect Israel to retaliate against Iran and rejected suggestions that the United States would authorize such an attack.
“First of all, we’re not ‘allowing’ Israel, we’re advising Israel,” Biden said. “And nothing will happen today.”
Israel announces killing of Hamas official in Gaza Strip
The escalating violence in Lebanon has opened a second front in the war between Israel and Iran-backed militants that began nearly a year ago with Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7.
The Israeli military announced on Thursday that it had killed a senior Hamas leader in an airstrike in the Gaza Strip nearly three months ago. An attack on an underground facility in northern Gaza has killed Rawi Mushtaha and two other Hamas commanders.
Hamas had no immediate comment. Mushtaha was a close ally of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who masterminded the October 7 attack. Mr. Shinwar is believed to be alive and hiding in Gaza.
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This article has been corrected to say that four Red Cross paramedics were killed, not injured, in the Israeli attack.
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Jeffrey reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press staff writers Abby Sewell and Kareem Chehaib in Beirut and Zeina Karam in London contributed to this report.
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