Israel and Hezbollah launch new attacks after deadly day in Lebanon

[Pelican Press 0]

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******* and Hezbollah launch new attacks after deadly day in Lebanon

Smoke billows over southern Lebanon following ******** strikes, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and ******** forces, as pictured from Marjayoun, near the border with *******, September 23, 2024. 

Karamallah Daher | Reuters

******* struck Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and the Iran-backed group attacked military facilities in northern ******* on Tuesday, increasing fears of a full-blown conflict after Lebanon suffered its deadliest day in decades.

*******’s military said it hit dozens of Hezbollah targets overnight, a day after carrying out airstrikes against the armed group which Lebanese authorities said ******* nearly 500 people and sent tens of thousands fleeing for safety.

Hezbollah said it targeted several ******** military targets overnight including an explosives factory 60 km (37 miles) into *******, which it attacked with Fadi rockets around 4 a.m. (0100 GMT). It said it also attacked the Megiddo airfield near the northern ******** town of Afula three separate times overnight.

After almost a year of war against ****** in 

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 on its southern border, ******* is 

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 to the northern frontier, where Hezbollah has been ******* rockets into ******* in support of ******, which is also backed by Iran.

Lebanese caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati’s office said he would fly to New York, where the ******* Nations General Assembly is taking place, “for further contacts” following the escalated wave of ******** strikes on Lebanon on Monday.

The fighting has raised fears that the U.S., *******’s close ally and regional power Iran, which has proxies across the Middle East — Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis and armed groups in Iraq — will be sucked into a wider war.

The strikes have piled pressure on Hezbollah, which last week suffered heavy losses when thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by its members exploded in the worst security breach in its history.

The operation was widely attributed to *******, which has not confirmed or denied responsibility.

*******’s intelligence and technological prowess has given it a strong edge in both Lebanon and Gaza. It has track down and assassinated top Hezbollah commanders and ****** leaders.

The foreign ministers of the Group of Seven major democracies said the Middle East risked being dragged into a broader conflict that no country would gain from, according to a statement released after they met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

An all-out war could create instability across the Middle East in addition to a devastating war in Gaza which shows no sign of easing.

*******’ potential options could include invading southern Lebanon and further broadening airstrikes to hit more of the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut or Lebanese infrastructure, including bridges and highways that were blown up in the 2006 *******-Hezbollah war.

Lebanon can ill afford such destruction as it is still suffering from a catastrophic financial collapse which its leaders have left to fester for five years.

Formidable foe

Although it has suffered major blows, 

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 would likely be a more formidable foe for ******* in a ground invasion than ******.

Created in 1982 by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to counter the ******** invasion of Lebanon, it has vast experience, is highly disciplined and possesses better weaponry than its ************ ally.

But ******* is facing mounting public pressure to secure its northern border and safely return residents there — a top war priority.

A senior source familiar with Hezbollah thinking said the group was in an unprecedented phase of confrontation and ******* was acting as if it sought to push Hezbollah against the wall. Hezbollah says it does not want a wider war.

The ******** military said it struck a Hezbollah militant cell, and its artillery and tanks hit other Hezbollah targets in the south. Police in northern ******* said fragments of interceptor missiles were found in various areas.

After almost a year of hostilities that flared last October as the Gaza war erupted, ******* warned people in Lebanon to evacuate areas where it said the armed movement was storing weapons.

Families from south Lebanon loaded cars, vans and trucks with belongings and people young and old. Highways north were gridlocked.

The Lebanese minister coordinating the crisis response, Nasser Yassin, told Reuters 89 temporary shelters in schools and other facilities had been set up, with the capacity for more than 26,000 people as civilians fled what he called “******** atrocities”.

*******’s military said it struck Hezbollah in Lebanon’s south, east and north on Monday, including rocket launchers, command posts and militant infrastructure. The ******** Air Force struck about 1,600 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, it said.

Lebanon’s health ministry said at least 492 people had been *******, including 35 children, and 1,645 wounded. One Lebanese official said it was Lebanon’s highest daily ****** toll from ********* since the 1975-1990 civil war.

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