The Israeli army reported on Tuesday it has intensified its ground offensive in southern Lebanon, while the Islamist Hezbollah militia said it launched numerous missiles targetting northern Israel.
The salvo was fired at various targets in northern Israel, the Iranian-backed militia said in a statement. The Israeli army said air raid alerts had been issued in several locations near the border with Lebanon.
About 180 rockets targeted the Galilee region of Israel and Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city, however, most of them were intercepted, the army said. Some missiles also hit the suburbs of Haifa, it said.
The Times of Israel described it as the biggest rocket attack on the port city since Hezbollah began firing at northern Israel a year ago.
Israeli ground troops had captured a military post of Hezbollah during their advance into Lebanese territory, according to security sources in Lebanon.
Hezbollah confirmed that an Israeli flag had been raised at the post near the town of Maroun al-Ras.
Lebanese security sources said Israeli military vehicles were spotted near soldiers stationed there as part of the UN observer mission, UNIFIL. There was no immediate confirmation from the Israeli military.
A spokesman for the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL), Andrea Tenenti told dpa that armed clashes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah were taking place very close to UNIFIL positions.
“We are in the middle,” Tenenti said, adding that the fighting puts the Blue Helmets at risk.
UN Secretary General António Guterres later said that “those Israeli tanks and other armed elements that were around the 652 position have left.”
Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had deployed a fourth division in southern Lebanon. A division is a large military unit composed of several brigades and typically includes thousands of soldiers.
Reports indicate that three other Israeli divisions are currently deployed in the central and eastern sectors of the front.
Hezbollah has been launching attacks on Israel for the past year, claiming it is acting “in solidarity” with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The regular exchanges of fire have cost lives on both sides.
Israel’s current objective is to push the militia away from the border, allowing approximately 60,000 evacuated Israelis to return to their homes.
Top Hezbollah commander presumed killed in Beirut attack
Hashem Safieddine, the leading candidate to succeed the deceased head of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, is presumed dead, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said.
“Hezbollah is a headless organization – Nasrallah has been eliminated and his successor has likely also been eliminated,” Gallant said, according to his office. The minister did not mention Safieddine, the head of Hezbollah’s Executive Council, by name.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated in a video address released on Tuesday evening that Israel had “eliminated thousands of terrorists, including Nasrallah himself, Nasrallah’s successor and the successor of his successor.” He also did not name Safieddine.
There is no one left in the militia to make decisions, Gallant added.
The high-ranking Hezbollah leader was reportedly the target of a massive Israeli bombardment in Beirut last week.
Earlier, the Israeli Air Force said it had killed Suhail Hussein Husseini in a targeted attack on Monday. “Husseini played a crucial role in weapon transfers between Iran and Hezbollah,” the military said.
Israel has waged war against the Islamist Hamas and other groups in Gaza since militants carried out a brutal massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023 that killed more than 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages.
According to Palestinian and UN figures, about 42,000 people have died since then.
Hezbollah supports ceasefire talks
Hezbollah’s deputy leader on Tuesday expressed openness to a ceasefire with Israel.
In a televised speech, Naim Qassem said he supported attempts by parliamentary speaker and Hezbollah ally, Nabih Berri to secure a truce for the fighting in Lebanon.
He said he trusted Berri in the negotiations. Berri has reportedly been holding truce talks with Arab and foreign officials visiting Lebanon since last week.
But Qassem also said, “If the enemy [Israel] continues its war, then the battlefield will decide.” Hezbollah would not beg for a solution. “We will continue, we will make sacrifices.”
At least 20 Palestinian fighters killed in Gaza
The Israeli army said on Tuesday that it had killed at least 20 armed Palestinian fighters in northern Gaza.
In the Jabalia region, where troops launched a new ground offensive on Sunday, weapons caches were also raided, with air support provided to ground forces, it said.
The IDF also reported ongoing fighting in central and southern Gaza. The information could not be independently verified.
UN representatives fear Gaza-like conditions in Lebanon
UN organizations fear that the people of Lebanon could face the same fate as those in the Gaza Strip in the face of the ongoing bombardments by Israel.
Jeremy Laurence, spokesman for the UN Human Rights Office in Geneva said the same military methods are being used in both war zones. “The devastation is beyond belief in Lebanon as it is in Gaza.”
Matthew Hollingworth, director for the World Food Programme in Lebanon, said the organization currently supports about 200,000 people a day with food, and this figure is expected to increased to 1 million.
Hollingworth, who worked in the Gaza Strip until June, said that the people in Lebanon were afraid that what had happened to the people in Gaza could happen to them.
“It is on my mind from the time I wake until I sleep that we could go into the same spiral of doom,” Hollingworth said.
Red Cross flies more aid to Lebanon
The German Red Cross (DRK) said it was sending a plane with 150 rescue backpacks for the treatment of serious injuries from Cologne to Beirut.
More than 2,100 people have been killed in Lebanon since the escalation of confrontations between Israel’s military and the Hezbollah militia a year ago, and more than 10,000 injured, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
