First, the Israeli army warned in Arabic the “now scarce” Lebanese who approach the beaches or use boats in the southwest of the country not to do so, in a sign that the naval forces were going to operate in the area. . Then, this Tuesday, he announced the start of a “limited, localized and focused” land incursion in the area for which he has added a division of reservists. With some 7,000 soldiers, it is the first that will participate in combat operations and joins three others, which had been focusing their advance in the southeast, in parallel to the dozens of daily bombings, as on the day before, with more than one hundred fighters flying over Lebanon at the same time. Israel thus extends the invasion to the entire south of the country.
Shortly after, the number two Hezbollah leader Naim Qasem has given his second speech since the assassination of leader Hasan Nasrallah last month. In a more confident tone than the first, but also from an unidentified location and through the party-militia television network, Al Manar, Qasem has once again insisted that the reality of the fighting (with the launch of between 120 and 230 projectiles against Israel) is showing that it “has put the loss of Nasrallah (its leader for 32 years) behind it and that its military capabilities “have not been affected” and “are fine.”
In parallel and, in a new attempt to show muscle, the militia has carried out the largest missile offensive of the entire year of war, launching two waves of rockets on the Israeli city of Haifa, the third largest in the country. more than a hundred projectiles, although without causing fatalities or leading the authorities to announce new security restrictions for the population. This attack coincides with October 8, the anniversary of Hezbollah’s first rocket launch in solidarity with the Israeli military response to the Hamas massacre of October 7, 2023.
Qasem has also assured that the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, lives in an “illusion”, by invading southern Lebanon, because “he cannot achieve his objectives.” “He says he works so that the settlers [los habitantes] from northern Israel can return. We respond that we are going to force them to move more and more,” continued the leader of the Lebanese militia.
Although, he added, the war “did not come from the will” of Hezbollah, the militia is “prepared” to fight it for as long as it lasts, even after the biggest blows in its four decades of history. The last, although minor, was the death of the head of logistics and budgets, Suhail Hussein Husseini, in a bombing south of Beirut. Israel has announced it, but Hezbollah has not yet confirmed or denied it.
Despite everything, Qasem stressed, Hezbollah men not only continue to launch projectiles against Israel daily (the largest shipment in a year of clashes against the Haifa area, up to more than a hundred, just when the leader was speaking), but They also slow down the advance of Israeli troops in the south. Most of the projectiles have been able to be intercepted by the Israeli anti-aircraft system, but others have hit the country’s largest port city, about thirty kilometers from the border with Lebanon, and its surrounding towns. Haifa, in addition to being the third largest city in Israel after Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, is a critical place for industry and the largest population center in the north.
The combat is being fought between Israel and the Shiite militia, with the Lebanese army on the sidelines, beyond a specific response this week to the death of two Lebanese soldiers by Israeli fire. Although Israel violates sovereign Lebanese territory by land, sea and air on a daily basis (the overflight of Israeli fighter jets and the drone of drones are now part of daily reality), the regular armed forces do not respond. For this reason, and in the face of criticism from both sides, the Lebanese army issued a statement this Tuesday to underline “its willingness to defend the territory, within the available capabilities” before clarifying that it depends on the “decisions.” of the political authorities.”
Meanwhile, the fear of airlines to operate in the region grows in the midst of growing hostilities on different fronts and waiting for the retaliation that Israel has assured that it will launch against Iran after the largest missile offensive launched by the regime. the ayatollahs a week ago now. About thirty companies have announced restrictions on the movement of their devices until the situation calms down.
Two United Nations agencies have also sounded the alarm this Tuesday about the situation in Lebanon. The head of the World Health Organization in the country, Ian Clarke, has warned that overcrowded conditions in shelters for displaced people and the closure of hospitals due to attacks by the Israeli army “greatly increase the risk of outbreaks occurring.” of diseases, such as acute watery diarrhea, hepatitis A and several vaccine-preventable diseases. And the World Food Program has expressed its “extraordinary concern” about Lebanon’s ability to generate enough food, with crops rotting in the fields because, with up to 20% of the population displaced, no one can pick them.
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