Israel says it’s targeting Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon ground raids

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By James Mackenzie, Maya Gebeily and Timour Azhari

JERUSALEM/BEIRUT (Reuters) -Israel said commando and paratroop units launched raids into Lebanon on Tuesday as part of a “limited” ground incursion, while Iran-backed Hezbollah said it had fired a barrage of missiles into Israel, including at its spy agency near Tel Aviv.

The raids by Israeli troops in southern Lebanon that began overnight were limited and went only a short distance over the border, an Israeli security official said on Tuesday, adding that no direct clashes with Hezbollah fighters were reported.

Hezbollah’s media relations chief Mohammad Afif denied Israel’s claim its forces had entered Lebanon.

Earlier, Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee had issued a warning in Arabic on X to residents in southern Lebanon because of what he said was intense fighting with Hezbollah.

“Urgent warning to the residents of South Lebanon. Heavy fighting is taking place in southern Lebanon with Hezbollah elements using the civilian environment and the population as human shields to launch attacks.”

The Israeli raids follow intense airstrikes that have devastated the Hezbollah’s leadership, including assassinating its chief Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut last week.

Israel’s military said its ground raids will target Hezbollah strongholds along the border that threaten Israel and is not a war against the Lebanese people.

“Hezbollah turned Lebanese villages next to Israeli villages into military bases ready for an attack on Israel,” military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said. Residents in southern Lebanon fled on Monday and Tuesday as Israeli strikes drew nearer, local sources told Reuters.

Hezbollah said in a statement on Tuesday that it had fired the “Fadi 4” at military positions in the suburbs of Israel commercial hub Tel Aviv. It is the fourth iteration of a series which have progressively bigger payloads and longer ranges that Hezbollah has begun to use in recent weeks.

The group also said it fired missiles at the headquarters of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, blamed for assassinations of Hezbollah commanders and leaders, and at a military intelligence unit on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

Israel’s ambulance service said two people had been wounded by shrapnel from the barrage of missiles fired into Tel Aviv and the wider central Israel area. Traffic was also affected by part of a missile that fell onto a highway near the town of Kfar Qasim east of Tel Aviv.

Two Lebanese security sources told Reuters that Israeli units had crossed into Lebanon overnight for reconnaissance and probing operations. Lebanese troops also pulled back from positions along the border, the source added.

Lebanon is facing one of the most dangerous stages in its history, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Tuesday during a meeting with UN organisations and ambassadors of donor countries, in which they made a joint appeal for more than $400 million in aid to cope with surging hostilities.

Despite its biggest successes against Hezbollah in decades, Israel has indicated it is primed for a full-fledged invasion of Lebanon with the stated aim of enabling thousands of its citizens who fled Hezbollah rockets to safely return to their communities near the northern border.

Israel’s strikes have displaced one million Lebanese from their homes and killed more than 1,100 people, Lebanese authorities have said. A looming ground offensive has sparked fear and anger in Lebanon.

“Not just Hezbollah, all of Lebanon will fight this time. All of Lebanon is determined to fight Israel for the massacres it committed in Gaza and Lebanon,” said Abu Alaa, a resident of the southern port city of Sidon.

LEBANESE ARMY PULLS BACK

Iran’s allies — from Hezbollah to Yemen’s Houthis to armed groups in Iraq — have weighed in with attacks in the region in support of Hamas in the Gaza war, raising fears the conflict will engulf the Middle East and suck in the United States and Tehran.

Yemen’s Houthi movement targeted Israeli military posts in Tel Aviv and Eilat with drones on Tuesday, the group’s military spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a televised speech.

Local residents in the Lebanese border town of Aita al-Shaab reported heavy shelling and the sound of helicopters and drones overhead. Flares were repeatedly launched over the Lebanese border town of Rmeish, lighting up the night sky.

An Israeli strike in Lebanon early on Tuesday targeted Mounir Maqdah, 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 Lebanon’s largest Palestinian camp since cross-border hostilities between broke out nearly a year ago.

Israel has not commented on the strike.

In Syria, three civilians were killed and nine others injured in an Israeli airstrike on the capital Damascus, Syrian state media said, citing a military source. Israel’s military said it does not comment on foreign media reports.

Israel has been carrying out strikes against Iran-linked targets in Syria for years but has ramped up raids since the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel’s southern territory on Oct. 7, 2023.

Hamas killed 1,200 people and took about 250 hostage in its assault on Israel, according to Israeli tallies. Israel in response launched a massive assault on Hamas in Gaza, killing more than 41,300 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry.

STRIKES ON BEIRUT

Overnight, a series of strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs after the Israeli military warned residents to evacuate areas near buildings it said contained Hezbollah infrastructure south of the capital.

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

(Reporting by James Mackenzie in Jerusalem and Maya Gebeily in Beirut; Writing by Rosalba O’Brien and Michael Georgy; Editing by Himani Sarkar, Neil Fullick, Michael Perry, Miral Fahmy and Sharon Singleton)