Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have authorised the army to advance and seize more land in Lebanon to prevent firing on Israeli border settlements.
The Israeli military has advanced a kilometre into Lebanese territory, seizing positions in at least three areas and prompting Lebanese troops to withdraw, a Lebanese army official told The National. “They’re advancing rapidly, and it’s changing every minute,” they said.
Israel bombarded Lebanon in response to strikes by Hezbollah, which had entered the war between Iran and US and Israel in support of Tehran.
The army “continues to operate with force against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon”, Mr Katz said.
“To prevent the possibility of direct-aimed firing on the Israeli settlements, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I have approved for the military to advance and seize additional controlling areas in Lebanon and to defend the border settlements from there,” he said.
Hezbollah announced three separate attacks between 5am and 6.30am on Tuesday. Two were carried out by drones and targeted at military positions in Israel. The third, a rocket barrage, was aimed at Israeli forces in the Occupied Golan Heights, Hezbollah said.
All came as reprisals to Israeli attacks on Lebanon on Monday, Hezbollah said.
Around dawn on Tuesday, the Israeli military bombed the Hezbollah-affiliated Al Nour radio station in Beirut’s southern suburbs, according to the group's TV station Al Manar. The attacks were part of several Israeli attacks on Beirut at the same time.
By Tuesday afternoon, the Israeli army was operating near the southern border villages of Kafr Kela, Yaroun and Al Qawzah, the Lebanese Armed Forces official said. Lebanese troops have had to withdraw from positions along the border “as a result of continuing Israeli escalation”.
“There were only around eight soldiers stationed at each point, so they can’t defend themselves against the Israeli army’s advances,” the official added.
Military spokesman Lt Col Nadav Shoshani said earlier on Tuesday that the military had sent additional forces to southern Lebanon overnight, to take up what he described as “defensive positions to protect Israeli civilians and strategic sites from any potential Hezbollah attack”.
“We're only at the borderline area in a defensive manner to prevent attacks against civilians and very strategically important points,” Lt Col Shoshani said.
But in a statement a few hours later, Mr Shoshani said Israel is adopting an “advanced military posture” in southern Lebanon alongside its heavy bombing campaign in the country, but denied the new deployment was “ground manoeuvre”.
He said the move is “a tactical step to create an additional layer of security for the residents of northern Israel”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hezbollah “made a very big mistake” in attacking Israel. He said the Israeli military would act in Lebanon with “even greater and additional force”.
“The Lebanese government needs to understand, and the Lebanese people need to understand, that Hezbollah is dragging them into a war that is not theirs, just because of the death of that mass murderer they have nothing to do with,” Mr Netanyahu added.
Meanwhile, a senior Hezbollah official warned that the “time for patience is over” and now the group was left “with no option but to return to resistance” and attacking Israel.
The vice president of Hezbollah's political bureau, Mahmoud Qamati, said the group's recent patience, by not responding to Israel’s repeated attacks and occupation of multiple points of south Lebanon, was meant to give space for diplomatic efforts to succeed – but they had failed.
The new front in the war opened on Monday when Hezbollah, one of Tehran's principal allies, launched missiles and drones towards Israel in response to the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamanei.
Israel responded with air strikes, which it said struck the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut and killed senior militants. The Lebanese state news agency NNA said at least 50 people had been killed and tens of thousands displaced.
The UN's refugee agency said at least 30,000 people have sought protection in shelters in Lebanon. “Many more slept in their cars on the side of roads or were still stuck in traffic jams on the roads,” said UNHCR representative Babar Baloch.
Israel declared Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem a “target for elimination”. Israeli officials said for now they were not considering a ground invasion of Lebanon, whose government on Monday banned all military activity by Hezbollah.
Israeli medics said one person was lightly injured from Hezbollah rocket fire in the Galilee, as the fighting expanded. The 64-year-old man was taken to hospital with wounds from glass shards.
At least 40 people have been killed and 246 wounded in Israeli attacks on Lebanon on Monday and Tuesday, a representative of Lebanon's Health Ministry said.
They said a death toll of 52 given by the ministry on Monday had been a technical error.
Lior Shelef, a farmer from Kibbutz Snir, in northern Israel, said the current fighting particularly since Hezbollah joined felt “no less scary” than the major conflict on the northern border during the Gaza War.
Talking to The National from inside his bomb shelter, Mr Shelef said: “The feeling now that Hezbollah is involved is different. With the alerts from Iran we had a few minutes to get into the shelter. With the ones from Lebanon we have zero seconds basically.”
“It feels no less scary than last time, because the kids are here,” he added.
Mr Shelef’s family, along with many thousands of Israelis across the north, were given government-funded accommodation in safer areas for a year and a half after the October 7, 2023, attacks in fear of barrages and ground invasion from Hezbollah. Now, no such evacuation is forthcoming.
“I must admit that with all the years I’ve been studying Lebanon, I was very surprised Hezbollah stupidly joined this war,” Mr Shelef said.
“I feel sorry for all the infrastructure in Lebanon the IDF will now have to bomb. It will take years to replace. The way to get stability here is to have strong countries around us,” he added.
Mr Shelef was briefly interrupted by his children trying to leave the shelter before the all-clear had been given.
“The kids are very, very terrified. They’re going to sleep in the safe room and there’s no option of educational or cultural activity in the kibbutz,” he said, after shouting at his children to remain.
Mr Shelef was wary of another ground war in Lebanon, over which fears are mounting after Israeli defence leaders said the army would move into new positions in southern Lebanon.
“When we finished the ground operation in Lebanon, we pushed Hezbollah about 10-12 km backwards That means boots on the ground this time means going very deep,” he said.
