Wednesday, October 2, 2024, 10:45
Israel has mobilized the 36th Division of the army that it had stationed next to the border towards Lebanon, where this Wednesday it urged the inhabitants of two dozen towns to evacuate their homes. Hundreds of armored vehicles, tanks and excavators are heading towards the neighboring territory to join the 39th Division that was deployed on Monday night to begin the “limited, localized and specific raids” with which Tel Aviv wants to destroy Hezbollah’s infrastructure.
The 36th Division, popularly known as Ga’ash (Rage in its Spanish translation), has remained in exercise these last few hours waiting to go into action. This is the most powerful armored and infantry contingent in the entire army, which confirms the determination of the Netanyahu Government to reduce to nothing all the bases and rocket launching platforms of the Shiite militia that could threaten the security of the Hebrew state. It is a long-standing battalion, founded in 1956, and a veteran, having participated in the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War. It is moving towards the south of Lebanon under the cover of artillery and the air force, which this morning have been lavish in bombing the militia positions.
Still, Hezbollah’s response has been instantaneous. Since dawn, the militia has fired a hundred rockets into northern Israel. Several have hit the city of Metula, almost completely evacuated, where a dozen buildings have been destroyed. The alarm sirens continue to sound in the towns of the Upper and Western Galilee.
The Defense Forces seem determined to isolate the southern Lebanese territories according to their last message to civilians: “Attention, do not move south. “Any movement south could endanger your lives.” Tens of thousands of people are displaced far from the focus of the war and the UN has asked to accelerate international aid to set up camps and provide humanitarian materials to the newly displaced. The scheme is very similar to that used by the Defense Forces in the occupation of Gaza.
The new military movement occurs just twelve hours after Iran launched 180 long-range missiles against the Jewish State. The attack was neutralized by the Israeli anti-aircraft shield, caused minimal damage and two minor injuries, but undoubtedly raises the risk of a complete escalation in the region one step further. Citizens are still in a state of shock after having spent three harrowing hours locked in tunnels, shelters and other bunkers on Tuesday afternoon.
The operation in Lebanon continues in the shadow of this new front opened with the Islamist regime. While waiting for the severe response that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to give, the head of the opposition, Yair Lapid, has demanded a “tough” response because “there is something that must be clear to our enemies: Israel will leave victorious,” he says in a statement. The Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abbas Araqchi, has explained for his part that the regime authorities have warned the United States “that it should stay out of this matter and not intervene.” The UN Security Council today addresses the worsening tensions in the region.
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