On Tuesday, the Israeli army announced ground raids against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and the mobilization of additional forces against this movement. She called on residents of 27 localities in southern Lebanon to evacuate. The UN Interim Force in Lebanon, deployed on the border with Israel, nevertheless assured that it had not detected an Israeli incursion. The Lebanese army and Hezbollah have also denied such an incursion.
According to an Israeli official, this is “localized raids of a very limited scale“, intended for “ward off threats against civilian communities in northern Israel“, bordering southern Lebanon and target of Hezbollah fire. According to the American site Axios, citing Israeli officials, the ground operation did not “not aimed at occupying southern Lebanon“, from which Israel withdrew in 2000 after 22 years of occupation.”If necessary, we will reach Beirut. We have patience and strength, we are the strongest army in the world” said Yossi Cohen, a 60-year-old firefighter from Haifa. “If they (Israeli soldiers) enter (Lebanon), they will dig their graves with their own hands […] They won’t come out alive“, says Inas, a displaced person from the southern suburbs of Beirut, across the border. The Israeli air force has also carried out deadly strikes near Beirut and in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah has said he fired rockets towards a base near Tel Aviv (center) and northern Israel.
It also fights the Lebanese Hezbollah which opened a front against Israel in support of Hamas, its ally, after the start of the war. On Friday, Hassan Nasrallah was killed in a devastating raid claimed by Israel in the southern suburbs of Beirut. On July 31, Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, was killed in an attack while he was in Tehran. Iran and Hamas blamed Israel. Heavy gunfire broke out in the southern suburbs of Beirut after the Iranian attack on Israel, according to the Lebanese National News Agency.
