This Tuesday morning, Israel began the land invasion of Lebanon that it had threatened, giving way to what it calls the “next phase of the war.” Meanwhile, the bombings continue in the southern neighborhoods of Beirut while the refugee camp Palestinians of Ein el-Hilweh.
“Limited, localized and selective ground raids, based on precise information, against Hezbollah terrorist targets and infrastructure in southern Lebanon,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) calls them in a statement when announcing a fact about which I had been speculating for days.
The offensive has focused “in villages near the border”which according to Israeli forces “represent an immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel”, and has been accompanied by the Air Force and artillery, which had already been launched into southern Lebanon in previous hours, with “attacks precise military objectives in the area.
The number of victims or the extent of the first night of the offensive is still unknown, but the Lebanese Ministry of Health, shortly before it began, warned that the last 24 hours The various Israeli attacks in the country have killed 95 people and injured another 172.
These figures are added to the more than a thousand people who have died and around a million who have had to flee their homes in the last two weeks in the face of Israel’s brutal bombing campaign directed mainly against the south and east of Lebanon, but also against the outskirts of Beirut.
Hezbollah Preparation
Given the imminence of the ground operation, Hezbollah has intensified attacks tonight against Israeli troops massing on the border. The Lebanese Shiite guerrilla issued a statement after midnight stating that The target of their attacks were Israeli troops deployed on the border.
For its part, the IDF confirmed that 10 projectiles were launched from Lebanon, of which some were intercepted and others fell in open areas.
It is about the first Israeli invasion of Lebanon in almost two decadesafter those executed in 1978, 1982 and 2006, and is carried out after Israel’s intense campaign against the Lebanese militia and the Israeli Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, announcing on Monday that “the next stage of the war against Hezbollah It will start soon.
Bombings in southern Beirut
Beirut, which in recent days has received dozens of thousands of displaced due to an intense air campaign against Hezbollah strongholds, not another day of attacks has been spared. The Israeli Army had urged Lebanese civilians on Monday night to evacuate several areas of the southern suburb of Beirut, known as Dahye and a guerrilla stronghold.
The Israeli military spokesman in Arabic, Avichay Adraee, published on X several maps of the neighborhoods of Lille, Haret Hreik and Burj el Barajnehpointing out three buildings in red and a circumference, in relation to the area of 500 meters around that the civilians had to clear.
According to the international Arab media Al Jazeeraciting the national news agency, a few hours after the announcement, Israeli planes They bombed the neighborhoods of Laylaki, al-Marija, Haret Hreik and Burj el Barajnehwithout confirmation of victims yet. The attacks could be heard throughout the city, as well as the columns of smoke.
To these bombings has also been added the attack on the Ein el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee campin Lebanon, where the leader of Al-Aqsa, the armed wing of Fatah, Munir Al-Maqdah, was supposedly located.
As reported by Lebanese television Al Manar, the objective of the Israeli incursion into this camp, where they live more than 100,000 Palestinians, In the south of Lebanon, in the city of Sidon, more than 50 kilometers from the border, it would be the home of the Palestinian leader Munir Al-Maqdash, who was unharmed, as confirmed by Palestinian sources to this channel.
This is the first attack on this large Palestinian refugee camp since the latest hostilities began and further information on the number of victims or the magnitude of this attack is unknown at this time.
On the other hand, the Syrian state news agency SANA reported tonight several airstrikes allegedly from Israel on Damascuswhere the death of Syrian television journalist Safaa Ahmed, and two other civilians, was reported. “The Israeli enemy launched an air attack with military aircraft flying from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting several points in the city of Damascus,” a military source informed SANA.
