[🇱🇧] Lebanon - Israel Conflict -2024

Source: https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/israel-iran-missile-attack-middle-east-10-02-24-intl-hnk/index.html

Lebanon's military says Israel crossed 400 meters into territory before withdrawing​

From CNN’s Tamara Qiblawi and Mostafa Salem

IDF handout photo geolocated to be in southern Lebanon.

Lebanon’s military said Wednesday an Israeli military force breached the border, reaching 400 meters (about a quarter of a mile) into Lebanese territory before withdrawing.

“An Israeli enemy force breached the Blue Line by approximately 400 meters into Lebanese territory in the areas of Khirbet Yaroun and the Aadeyseh, then withdrew after a short period,” the army said.

The Blue Line is a reference to the demarcation border area that separates Israel and Lebanon.

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment.

The IDF also released a photo of its troops inside Lebanon that CNN has geolocated to be inside southern Lebanon.

 

[Ghazi52]

4 hr 52 min ago

Israel sending more troops to southern Lebanon despite claims of "limited" incursion​

From CNN’s James Legge and Mick Krever

A convoy of Israeli army armoured personnel carriers moving on a road in northern Israel near the Israel-Lebanon border, on October 1.
Baz Ratner/AP

The Israeli military is sending an additional division to participate in the ground war in southern Lebanon, it announced Wednesday.

The size of Israeli military units are classified, but a division typically consists of at least 10,000 troops.

The addition of such a large number of soldiers comes despite Israel’s claim that its operation in Lebanon is “limited, localized, targeted” –  a description it repeated today.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has ordered Lebanese civilians in dozens of villages to leave their homes and move north of the Awali River, which is about 30 miles north of the border with Israel.

The military said the 36th Division of the IDF and additional forces were joining its operations targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah. The division includes soldiers from the Golani Brigade, 188th Armored Brigade and 6th Infantry Brigade, the IDF said. They are accompanied by the Israeli Air Force and the 282nd Artillery Brigade, it added.

The military last month moved the elite 98th division from Gaza to northern Israel.

The number of Israeli troops on the ground in southern Lebanon remains unclear following the military’s announcement Tuesday of an incursion across its northern border.

The Israeli military has staged some “sporadic raids” across the Lebanon-Israel border but its troops have not remained on Lebanese soil, a source from the UN Interim Forces in Lebanon said. The assessment that Israel has not yet launched a full-scale invasion was supported by two other high-level Lebanese security sources.

Israeli troops laid the groundwork for the incursion in recent days, ramping up airstrikes that have killed more than a thousand people, destroyed homes and displaced about 1 million in Lebanon.

Some context: Previous military operations initially declared by Israel to be limited in their goals have proved to be anything but. Examples include Israel’s years-long occupation of southern Lebanon that began in 1982 with the stated aim of a brief and limited mission to destroy the Palestinian Liberation Organization in the country.

More recently, Israel’s military declared a “limited” operation in Rafah, southern Gaza that has left the city in ruins.

 

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Israel announces deaths of 7 more soldiers in Lebanon, bringing total to 8​

From Eugenia Yosef and Mostafa Salem

The Israeli military announced the deaths of seven additional Israeli soldiers who were killed in combat in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, bringing the total toll since the offensive began to eight.

The Israel Defense Forces said an officer and four soldiers from the Egoz Unit were “severely injured.”

The IDF did not say which areas in southern Lebanon the soldiers were killed. In addition to the Egoz Unit, the soldiers served in the Golani Brigade and the Yahalom Unit.

Earlier Wednesday, the IDF announced the death of another soldier.

Hezbollah said in separate statements that it had targeted Israeli forces in three different villages in southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese army has said that an Israeli force breached 400 meters (about a quarter mile) in Lebanon and withdrew shortly after.

 

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A quarter of Lebanese territory now under Israeli military evacuation orders​

From CNN’s Eyad Kourdi, Tamara Qiblawi and Kara Fox

As Israel’s ground operation in southern Lebanon intensifies, the Israel Defense Forces has sent evacuation orders to 51 villages, instructing residents to move north.

The area under the IDF evacuation orders makes up a quarter of all Lebanese territory, with its inhabitants pushed more than 30 miles north of their homes.

 

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Assessing the fighting in southern Lebanon​

This was the sky above us earlier as Israel’s Iron Dome shot down one of the more than 100 Hezbollah rockets reported to have been launched from southern Lebanon so far today.

The loud explosions that accompanied the interceptions reflect the intensification of a battle that’s happening beyond the northern Israeli hills, out of our view.

It’s there that Israel is more than 36 hours into its ground invasion in Lebanon, which it says consists of a series of targeted operations.

At the same time, from nearby – but still afar - we’re constantly trying to piece together information from various sources to attempt to build an accurate picture of what’s unfolding.

First thing this morning, Hezbollah claimed to have repelled Israeli troops in the town of Adaisseh, inflicting casualties in the process.

Next, the Lebanese military – which is separate from Hezbollah – reported that Israeli troops had advanced about 400 metres into Lebanon, before turning back.

Then came confirmation from the IDF that it was involved – for the first time – in direct fighting with Hezbollah on the ground in what it called “close-range encounters". The IDF also released a short video clip showing troops on the move, in day-time and night-time, but gave away no details that would tell us more about the fighting that’s taking place.

Finally, the IDF confirmed the death of the first Israeli soldier during this Lebanon invasion. It sent condolences to the family of captain Eitan Oster who it said was killed today.

Until that point, many other Israeli families of serving soldiers now on - or beyond - the Lebanon border had faced an anxious wait for news as unconfirmed reports of casualties gathered pace on Telegram and WhatsApp groups – as well as in local and some Arab media.

With the announcement that another division of the Israeli army is being sent to the Lebanese border, more families will fear for loved ones crossing the border and into territory that Hezbollah knows so well.

Prime Minister Netanyahu says this is a vital, new mission to push back Hezbollah and allow tens of thousands of Israelis to return to their homes. But it’s perilous for the troops – and – as we’ve seen - has already had a devastating impact of hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians who’s been forced to flee their homes to escape the expanding Israeli attack.