Israel’s prime minister has issued a direct appeal urging the Lebanese people to oust Hezbollah and avoid “the destruction and suffering we see in Gaza.”
Benjamin Netanyahu’s call on Tuesday came as Israel expanded its ground invasion against Hezbollah by sending thousands of additional troops into a new zone in southwestern Lebanon.
Netanyahu also claimed that the Israel Defense Forces had killed the successor to Hezbollah’s former leader, Hassan Nasrallah, but the IDF later said it could not confirm the death of Hashem safieddine.
Elsewhere, Hezbollah fighters fired rockets at the Israeli port city of Haifa for the third straight day, wounding 12 people.
Israel has gone on the offensive after nearly a year of cross-border fighting sparked by the war in Gaza, seeking to ensure the safe return of tens of thousands of residents of Israeli border areas displaced by rocket, missile and drone attacks by Hezbollah.
Hostilities have been steadily escalating since Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of Palestinians on October 8, 2023, the day after its ally Hamas launched a deadly attack on southern Israel.
On Tuesday morning, the IDF announced that reservists from the 146th Division had begun “limited, localized, targeted operational activities” in southwestern Lebanon.
It joined three standing army divisions operating in the central and eastern areas of southern Lebanon since the invasion began on September 30 — reportedly bringing the total number of soldiers deployed to more than 15,000.
The IDF said troops had taken control of what it called a Hezbollah “combat complex” in the border village of Maroun al-Ras and released photos showing what it said was a loaded rocket launcher in an olive grove, as well as weapons and equipment in a residential building.
Meanwhile, the UN special coordinator for Lebanon and the head of the UN peacekeeping force warned in a joint statement that the humanitarian impact of the conflict was “nothing short of catastrophic”.
The Lebanese government says as many as 1.2 million people have fled their homes in the past year, with nearly 180,000 people staying in approved centres for displaced people.
In addition, more than 400,000 people have fled to war-torn Syria, including more than 200,000 Syrian refugees – a situation the head of the UN refugee agency described as a “tragic absurdity”.
The World Food Programme said there was “extraordinary concern about Lebanon’s ability to continue to feed itself” as thousands of hectares of farmland had been burned or abandoned.
The IDF also said its aircraft on Tuesday had carried out a new round of strikes on Hezbollah targets in the southern suburbs of Beirut, where the group has a strong presence, and other areas in Lebanon.
It had previously announced that a strike in the capital on Monday had killed the commander of Hezbollah’s headquarters, Suhail Husseini.
Hezbollah did not comment on the claim. But if confirmed, it would be the latest in a series of major blows Israel has dealt the group, with Hassan Nasrallah and most of his military commanders killed in similar recent attacks.
Hashem Safieddine, a senior Hezbollah official widely expected to succeed his cousin Nasrallah as leader, has not been heard from publicly since an Israeli airstrike reportedly targeted him in Beirut last Thursday.
IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said Tuesday night that the military could not confirm claims by Netanyahu and Israel’s Defense Minister that Safieddine had been killed in the strike, adding that the IDF was investigating the results of the operation.
Hezbollah’s deputy leader said in a defiant televised address from an undisclosed location Tuesday that command and control was “solid” and had “no vacant positions,” referring to the attacks on Israel in recent days.
“We are hurting them and we will extend the time. Dozens of cities are within range of the resistance’s rockets. We assure you that our capabilities are excellent,” Naim Qassem said.
But for the first time, he did not mention an end to the war in Gaza as a condition, while Hezbollah had previously said it would not stop attacking Israel until the conflict in Gaza was over.
“We support the political efforts that (Lebanese parliament speaker) Nabih Berri is making to achieve a ceasefire,” Qassem said in a televised speech.
“Once a ceasefire is reached, diplomacy can examine all other details.”
It was not clear whether this marked a change in Hezbollah’s position.
The speech coincided with the launch of more than 100 rockets toward Haifa Bay, as well as the Lower, Middle and Upper Galilee regions.
The IDF said most of the rockets were intercepted. There were no serious casualties.
On Sunday night, Haifa was directly attacked. This had not happened since the last war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.