[🇱🇧] Lebanon - Israel Conflict -2024

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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.

 

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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.

 

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Flattened buildings and drones overhead in Dahieh​

Hugo Bachega
Middle East correspondent, in Dahieh, Beirut

We are in Beirut’s southern suburbs known as Dahieh, the Hezbollah base in the capital, as part of a media tour organised by the group.

Hezbollah organised the tour to show what the group described as "some of the barbaric Israeli attacks on residential buildings and media institutions".

It was a rare chance to visit some of the sites hit in this intense campaign of Israeli airstrikes. One of the locations we were taken to was the building belonging to Sirat TV, hit on Monday.

It was flattened, and nearby buildings were severely damaged, an indication of the power of the attack.

There was still smoke billowing from the rubble and a heavy smell in the air. As we visited we could hear the sound of drones flying overhead.

There were several posters with the face of the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, killed in an Israeli airstrike in Dahieh last week, and a banner saying: "None of our banners shall fall".

The second location was a residential building hit yesterday, also flattened.

Israel has accused the group of embedding its facilities, including weapons storage sites, in residential areas, and of using the civilian population as human shields, something Hezbollah has denied.

 

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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.”