Israel’s military announced on Tuesday that it had initiated ground operations in southwest Lebanon, expanding its presence to a new area a year after clashes began with the armed group Hezbollah. This comes amid calls by the U.N. for a diplomatic solution. Tensions in the region, which were sparked a year ago by an attack on southern Israel by the Palestinian armed group Hamas, have led to a series of Israeli land and air operations in Lebanon and direct attacks by Iran on Israeli military installations.
Meanwhile, Iran issued fresh warning to Israel on Tuesday against any attacks on the Islamic Republic, a week after Tehran fired a barrage of missiles on it, putting the Middle East on edge. Any attack on Iran’s infrastructure will be met with retaliation, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said, warning Israel against attacks on his country.
In Lebanon, the Israeli military piled more pressure on Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah, saying it was conducting “limited, localized, targeted operations” in Lebanon’s southwest after announcing such operations for the southeast border area.
Israel’s military struck Beirut’s southern suburbs overnight and said it killed a senior Hezbollah responsible for the group’s budgeting and logistics. If confirmed, the death of Suhail Hussein Husseini would be the latest in a string of Israel’s assassinations of leaders and commanders of Hezbollah and its ally Hamas, which has been fighting Israel in Gaza for a year.
In the biggest blow to Hezbollah in decades, Israel killed its leader Hassan Nasrallah with an air strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs late last month.
The United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon and the head of the U.N.’s peacekeeping mission in the country said on Tuesday that their repeated appeals for restraint had “gone unheeded” in the year since the exchanges of fire began between Hezbollah and Israel.
“Today, one year later, the near-daily exchanges of fire have escalated into a relentless military campaign whose humanitarian impact is nothing short of catastrophic,” they said in a joint statement.
Team BharatShakti (With inputs from Reuters)
