Israeli military warns several Lebanese communities near the border to evacuate

Jerusalem: The Israeli military has warned people to evacuate nearly two dozen Lebanese border communities hours after announcing the start of ground operations against Hezbollah. The militant group denied Israeli troops had entered Lebanon.

It was not immediately clear whether Israeli troops had crossed the border. No photos or video footage has yet emerged showing Israeli ground forces inside Lebanon.

A damaged building is seen at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut.Credit: AP

Israel advised people to evacuate to the north of the Awali River, some 60 kilometers from the border and much farther than the Litani River, which marks the northern edge of a UN-declared zone that was intended to serve as a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah after their 2006 war.

“You must immediately head north of the Awali River to save yourselves, and leave your houses immediately,” said the statement posted by the Israeli military’s Arabic spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, on the platform X. The warning applied to communities south of the Litani.

The border region has largely emptied out over the past year as the two sides have traded fire. But the scope of the evacuation warning raised questions as to how deep Israel plans to send its forces into Lebanon as it presses ahead with a rapidly escalating campaign against Hezbollah.

Earlier Israel said intense fighting had erupted with Hezbollah in south Lebanon after its paratroops and commandos launched raids across the border on Tuesday, in a widely expected ground incursion and after devastating airstrikes against Hezbollah’s leadership.

Israeli armoured vehicles gather in Upper Galilee, Israel, on the Lebanese border.Credit: Getty

The Israeli military said it was striking Hezbollah targets in areas close to the Israeli border and that air force and artillery units were carrying out attacks to support the ground forces with “precise strikes”. It said the operation on unnamed villages was “limited, localised”. The Israeli Defence Force gave no details on how long the operation would last, but said the army had been training and preparing for months.

The London Telegraph quoted an Israeli elite forces commander as saying to his troops: “We have the great privilege of writing history, as we did in Gaza … to do it here in Lebanon as well.”

Hezbollah is backed by Iran and seen as one of its proxies acting against Israel.

Benjamin Netanyahu spoke directly to the Iranian people.Credit: AP

It came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a televised speech, in English with Persian subtitles, aimed at Iranians. He said Iran was prioritising regional conflict over its own people, and promised them their country and lives would be much improved if their leaders cared about them, their education, healthcare and infrastructure.

“With every passing moment, the regime is bringing you – the noble Persian people – closer to the abyss,” he said adding he envisioned an Iran at peace with Israel and free of theocratic rule.

“There is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach,” he said.

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.

“A few hours ago, the IDF began limited, localised and targeted ground raids,” the Israel defence Forces said. “These targets are located in villages close to the border and pose an immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel.”

Israeli tanks gather by the Israeli - Lebanese border before the start of the “limited ground” operation against Hezbollah.Credit: Getty Images

The incursion came shortly after it was approved by Israeli political leaders and marked a new stage in Israel’s war against Hezbollah. Israel also bombed targets in Syria.

The White House National Security Council said Israel’s “limited operations” to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure across the border were in line with the country’s right to defend itself.

The council, however, warned that an expansion of that operation was a risk. It added that a diplomatic solution was the only way to achieve lasting stability along Israel’s border with Lebanon.

Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Qassem, in a first public speech since Nasrallah’s death, said that “the resistance forces are ready for a ground engagement”.

He said Hezbollah had continued to fire rockets as deep as 150km into Israeli territory.

“We know that the battle may be long. We will win as we won in the liberation of 2006,” he said, referring to the last big conflict between the two foes.

Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike that hit the southern suburbs of Beirut.Credit: AP

In Syria, three civilians were killed and nine others injured in the airstrike on the capital Damascus, Syrian state media said citing a military source. State television earlier said that one of its presenters had been killed in an Israeli strike on Damascus, but it was unclear whether the toll included the presenter. The air attack also caused significant damage to private property. Israel’s military said it did 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 Hamas attack on Israel’s southern territory on October 7.

A man documents destroyed buildings at the site of an Israeli airstrike in a Beirut’s southern suburb, Lebanon, on Tuesday.Credit: AP

Earlier on Tuesday an Israeli strike in Lebanon 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.

Maqdah’s 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 the camp, largest of several Palestinian camps in Lebanon, since cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel broke out nearly a year ago.

The sounds of airstrikes were heard throughout Beirut and smoke rose from the capital’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a strong presence, shortly after Israel ordered residents of three buildings to evacuate.

Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged fire almost every day since the war in Gaza began, displacing tens of thousands of people in Israel and Lebanon. Israel says it will continue to strike Hezbollah until it is safe for families to return to their homes near the Lebanese border.

Shortly before the Israeli invasion, the IDF declared the areas of Metula, Misgav Am, and Kfar Giladi in northern Israel a “closed military zone”, indicating that the ground operation was imminent.

AP, Reuters, staff reporter

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