[🇱🇧] Lebanon - Israel Conflict -2024

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Israel issues more evacuation orders for southern Lebanon in sign of broadening ground incursion​

From CNN’s Eyad Kourdi and Sophie Tanno

Israeli army tanks manoeuvre in a staging area in northern Israel near the Israel-Lebanon border, on October 1.
Baz Ratner/AP

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has issued evacuation orders for an additional 25 villages in southern Lebanon, signaling a broadening of its ground incursion in the country.

A total of 76 villages in southern Lebanon have now been issued IDF evacuation notices since Tuesday.

IDF spokesperson Avichay Adraee listed the names of the 25 new villages Thursday, which are in areas that now extend deeper into Lebanon, reaching up to 45 kilometers (28 miles) inside the country.

He warned Lebanese citizens “for your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and move to the north of the Awali River.”

“Save your lives,” he added.

On Wednesday, the IDF announced it was sending an additional division to participate in its ground war in Lebanon, having reiterated that the campaign is “limited, localized, targeted.”

 

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Hezbollah says it repelled attempted Israeli advance into Lebanon​

From CNN’s Eyad Kourdi and Sophie Tanno

Hezbollah says it repelled an attempt by Israeli forces to advance at the Lebanese border on Thursday, where the two sides have been clashing since Israel launched a ground attack.

The militant group said they stopped an attempted advance by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) at the Fatima Gate border crossing by firing artillery at advancing soldiers. They also said they halted an Israeli attack near the town of Maroun Al-Ras.

Hezbollah also announced it had fired more rockets on Israel, targeting an Israeli settlement in the country’s north as well as a military outpost, saying the attacks were in support of Palestinians in Gaza and “in response to the brutal Israeli aggression.”

CNN has approached the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment.

 

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Countries prepare for possible evacuations from Lebanon​

From CNN's Alex Stambaugh

A flight takes off from Beirut airport on October 2, 2024 in Beirut, Lebanon.
Carl Court/Getty Images

Several countries are ramping up efforts to evacuate their nationals from Lebanon and urging those remaining to leave amid the escalating situation as Israel wages a ground offensive in the south of the country.

While no country has launched a large-scale military evacuation yet, some governments have organized charter flights and others have helped secure seats on commercial flights out of Lebanon, with many looking to Cyprus and Turkey as transit points.

Here’s a look at what some countries have done:

• United States: Dozens of US troops have been deployed to Cyprus in preparation for a range of contingencies including evacuating US citizens from Lebanon should a full-blown war erupt, US officials told CNN. Since August, the US has urged its nationals to leave Lebanon immediately.
• United Kingdom: In preparation for a possible evacuation of UK nationals from Lebanon, about 700 extra troops have been deployed to Cyprus, where the British military already has several hundred military personnel stationed at two bases. It also has two warships in the region and organized a charter flight from Lebanon’s capital Beirut Wednesday for nationals and their dependents.
• France: A French army spokesperson said Tuesday a helicopter carrier will arrive in the eastern Mediterranean in case Paris decides to evacuate its nationals from Lebanon, Reuters reported. Its contingency plans center on Cyprus and Beirut airport, while it is also discussing evacuations via Turkey, the news agency said.
• Australia: An additional 500 seats have been secured for Australians, permanent residents and their family members on commercial flights departing Saturday for Cyprus, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Thursday, after seats on several flights were organized earlier this week. An Australian Defence Force aircraft has been positioned in Cyprus to aid with contingency arrangements.
• China: More than 200 Chinese nationals have been evacuated from Lebanon, including about 80 people on a ship that arrived in Cyprus on Tuesday, according to state-run news agency Xinhua. More than 140 Chinese citizens and their families were on a chartered flight that arrived in Beijing on Wednesday, Xinhua added.
• Canada: Ottawa announced earlier this week it had secured an additional 800 seats on commercial flights leaving Lebanon for Canadians and their families. The country’s global affairs minister told CNN affiliate CBC News that if an evacuation becomes necessary, Canada has agreements with Cyprus, Greece and Turkey, and is working with the US, Australia and France to “make sure we adapt our evacuation plans together.”
• Spain, the Netherlands, South Korea and several other countries are deploying military aircraft to Lebanon to bring home their nationals.

 

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Israeli offensive in Lebanon is "destroying the country," Lebanese minister tells CNN​

From CNN's Niamh Kennedy in London and staff in Abu Dhabi

Lebanese Economy Minister Amin Salam participates in an interview with Reuters in Beirut, Lebanon, in 2022.
Mohamed Azakir/Reuters/File

Israel’s offensive in Lebanon is “destroying the country,” Lebanese Economy Minister Amin Salam told CNN.

Salam condemned Thursday morning’s strike on central Beirut, the first in that part of the city since 2006, highlighting how Israel is striking increasingly close to civilian areas.

“This has gone far and beyond what happened in 2006,” Salam told CNN’s Eleni Giokos, pointing out that the strike was carried out less than two miles from the Government Palace.

Salam warned that the displacement of over 1 million Lebanese and Syrian people from Lebanon will be a “long-term issue” for the government to manage, even if a ceasefire went into effect.

“We have hospitals filled with people, schools filled with people, people sleeping on the street, and this war keeps going. The way I see it is that this war has no goal. It’s just destroying the country,” Salam said.

“We need to rebuild their towns, their villages. We need to provide peaceful conditions for them. So, we are really in a very complicated operation now to take care of all those people,” the minister added.

 

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A dangerous Middle East crisis​

It’s hard to imagine a more unwelcome intangible a few weeks from an election than a security crisis in the Middle East, a region that has confounded American presidents for decades.

Following Israel’s ground offensive in Lebanon and its assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, the region has been on even more of a knife-edge after months of Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, which followed the October 7 Hamas terror attacks. The US and its allies helped repel Iran’s ballistic missile attack on Israel this week, but attention has now shifted to Israel’s response following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s warning to Tehran that nowhere is out of reach from Israeli forces.

Netanyahu’s supporters in Israel and the United States are urging him to take advantage of a moment of weakness for the Islamic Republic after Israeli forces’ success in taking out key leaders of Iranian proxy groups. Netanyahu raised expectations of another escalation by warning that Iran made a big mistake with its reprisal attacks and “will pay for it.”

But Biden on Wednesday took the highly unusual step of publicly warning Israel against any attempt to strike Iranian nuclear facilities. “The answer is no,” he said when questioned about such a potential operation, and said the US would be discussing with the Israelis about how they might respond.

But Biden’s problem is that Netanyahu has acquired a taste for ignoring US concerns about his actions in Gaza and Lebanon. This has damaged the administration’s authority. But the Israeli leader has also acted with the expectation that Washington will be forced to come to Israel’s defense in any case.

There’s also a significant political dimension to the worsening tensions. Trump and his allies are egging Netanyahu on — both because of ideological synergy with his far-right government and also perhaps because a sense of growing crisis could boost the former president’s hopes of winning a non-consecutive second term. And Israel’s military moves, which have led to thousands of civilian casualties in Gaza and Lebanon, also threaten to widen splits in the Democratic Party over the failure of Harris and Biden to restrain Netanyahu. Some community leaders, for example, warn of depressed progressive and Arab American turnout in key swing states, including Michigan, next month.

 

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It's unclear how long Israel's ground incursions in Lebanon will last, State Department says​

State Department Spokesperson Matt Miller speaks to the media during a briefing on Thursday, October 3.

The United States and Israel have had discussions about what comes after Israel’s incursions in Lebanon, but it’s not clear how long the military actions on the ground will last, according to the State Department.

“I’m not going to prejudge what’s going to happen. We don’t know what’s going to happen. Dare I say, the Israelis probably don’t know what’s going to happen at this point,” said Matt Miller, State Department spokesperson. “We’re going to watch as this unfolds, and we’ll make our assessments in real time.”

Miller would not say if the Israelis have an end game for the conflict in the north, as they ramp up cross-border incursions and Beirut strikes against Hezbollah.

“The Israelis will have to speak to that question, not me,” he said.

Despite Miller’s vague answers when it comes to any clarity US officials have received about Israel’s military operations against Hezbollah, the spokesperson said for now, the US is fully supportive of Israel’s efforts to target Hezbollah with “targeted objectives” aimed at the militant group’s infrastructure.

“We want to see a diplomatic resolution, but we do want to see Hezbollah’s capabilities degraded,” Miller said

 

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Israel will continue to strike Hezbollah targets in Beirut, military chief says​

From CNN’s Rob Picheta and Eugenia Yosef

The Israeli military said it is going to continue striking Hezbollah targets in Beirut, the Bekaa valley and southern Lebanon.

Herzi Halevi, the chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, said in a video message Thursday that the military is “determined to destroy” Hezbollah infrastructure near the Lebanese border and will continue to inflict damage against the militant group.

Halevi said returning residents near the border to their homes “means destroying the terrorist infrastructure that Hezbollah has built near the border so they could raid our communities and kill Israeli civilians when given the order.”

“We are very determined to destroy this infrastructure and eliminate anyone present there. We will not allow Hezbollah to establish itself in these places,” the military chief said.

Israel has accused Hezbollah of embedding weapons facilities beneath residential buildings in Beirut, while Israeli political leaders have become increasingly defiant of international calls for restraint and outrage over growing civilian casualties in Lebanon and Gaza.

Halevi said in his video message that Israeli troops “are more prepared and trained than ever, bearing the experience from the operations in Gaza, and their advantage in the combat arena is clear.”