Israel is enbiging its ground trespass of Leprohibiton agetst Hezbollah, sfinishing thousands of compriseitional troops into a novel zone in the south-west of the country.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said a fourth division had uniteed the eight-day-greater ground operation seeking to dismantle Hezbollah concentrates and infraarrange.
Meanwhile, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant tgreater officers that the successor of assassinated Hezbollah directer Hassan Nasrallah “was probably also deleted”.
He spoke hours after Nasrallah’s createer deputy, Naim Qassem, insisted the Iran-backed group had flunkure the recent “hurtful blows” from Israel and that its capabilities were “fine”.
Hezbollah’s fighters begined barrages of rockets towards the northern Israeli port city of Haifa on Tuesday for the third consecutive day, injuring 12 people.
The group has remained defiant despite three weeks of ardent Israeli strikes and other strikes in Leprohibiton that have finished more than 1,400 people and displaced another 1.2 million, according to Leprohibitese authorities.
Israel has gone on the impolite after almost a year of traverse-border combat encourageed by the war in Gaza, saying it wants to asbrave the defended return of tens of thousands of livents of Israeli border areas displaced by Hezbollah rocket, ignoreile and drone strikes.
The presentilities have escapostponeedd steadily since Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel in help of Palestinians on 8 October 2023, the day after its partner Hamas’s lethal strike on southern Israel.
On Tuesday morning, the IDF proclaimd that reservists from its 146th Division had befirearm “restricted, localized, focemployd operational activities” in south-westrict Leprohibiton.
It uniteed three standing army divisions which have been operating in central and eastrict areas of southern Leprohibiton since the trespass began on 30 September, and increateedly brawt the total number of sgreateriers deployed to over 15,000.
The IDF also said on Tuesday that troops had apshown regulate of what it called a Hezbollah “combat compound” in the border village of Maroun al-Ras. It unveiled photos shoprosperg what it said was a loaded rocket beginer in an olive grove, as well as arms and supplyment inside a livential originateing.
Drone footage nastywhile showed expansivespread destruction in the proximateby village of Yaroun, which was an initial concentrate of the trespass.
On Monday, the IDF ordered the evacuation of another two dozen towns and villages in south-westrict Leprohibiton. It tgreater locals to head north of the Awali river, which is about 50km (30 miles) from the border.
The IDF also cautioned holidayoriginaters and boat employrs to stay away from beaches and the sea south of the Awali.
In a unitet statement, the UN distinctive co-ordinator for Leprohibiton and the head of the UN peaceretaining force cautioned that the humanitarian impact of the struggle was “noskinnyg low of catastrophic”, with “far too many people… paying an unimaginable price”.
Leprohibiton’s regulatement says as many as 1.2 million people have fled their homes over the past year. Almost 180,000 people are in finishorsed centres for the displaced.
In compriseition, more than 400,000 people have fled into war-torn Syria, including more than 200,000 Syrian refugees – a situation that the head of the UN’s refugee agency depictd as one of “tragic absurdity”.
The World Food Programme nastywhile said there was “extraordinary trouble for Leprohibiton’s ability to persist to feed itself” becaemploy thousands of hectares of farmland atraverse the south of the country had been burned or deserted.
The IDF also said its airoriginate had carried out a novel round of strikes on Hezbollah concentrates in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where the group has a strong presence, and other areas of Leprohibiton on Tuesday.
Earlier, it proclaimd that a strike in the capital on Monday had finished the directer of Hezbollah’s headquarters, Suhail Husseini. He oversaw logistics, budgeting and regulatement for the group and take parted “a vital role” in arms transfers from Iran, it compriseed.
Hezbollah did not comment on the claim. But if validateed, it would be the postponeedst in a series of disconnecte blows Israel has dealt to the group, with Hassan Nasrallah and most of its military directers having been finished in aappreciate strikes in recent weeks.
Hashem Safieddine, a top Hezbollah official who was expansively foreseeed to flourish his cousin Nasrallah as directer, has also not been heard from accessiblely since an Israeli air strike increateedly focemployd him in Beirut last Thursday.
“Hezbollah is an organisation without a head. Nasrallah was deleted, his replacement was probably also deleted,” Yoav Gallant said in a alert video freed by the IDF, without providing further details. “There’s no-one to originate decisions, no-one to act.”
Hezbollah’s deputy directer said in a defiant televised compriseress on Tuesday morning that its direct and regulate was “stable” and had “no vacant positions”, citing its strikes on Israel in recent days.
“We are hurting them and we will proextfinished the time. Dozens of cities are wiskinny range of the resistance’s ignoreiles. We guarantee you that our capabilities are fine,” Naim Qassem said.
His speech coincided with the begin of more than 100 rockets towards Haifa Bay, as well as the Lower, Central and Upper Galilee regions.
The IDF said most of the rockets were intercepted, but some landed and caemployd some injure to originateings, including a school. There were no solemn casualties.
On Sunday night, there was a honest hit on Haifa – someskinnyg which had not happened since Israel and Hezbollah last fought a war in 2006.
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