Israel announced this Wednesday, October 2, the sending of armored vehicles and infantry to the border with Lebanon to continue the offensive in the south of the country, and continues to bomb the suburbs of Beirut.
The military operation in southern Lebanon is intensifying. The Israeli army announced on Wednesday October 2 the deployment of new infantry and armored units in southern Lebanon, where it claims to have launched a ground offensive against Hezbollah on the night of Monday to Tuesday.
The addition of infantry and armor troops from the 36th Division, including the Golani Brigade, the 188th Armored Brigade and the 6th Infantry Brigade, suggests that the Israeli ground operation has moved beyond commando raids limited, according to the British news agency Reuters.
This morning, the Israeli army also launched a new appeal urging civilians to “immediately” evacuate new locations in southern Lebanon. The spokesperson for the Israeli army, Avichai Adraee, published a message on his Telegram account calling on civilians to evacuate “for (their) safety” more than twenty localities, including Palestinian refugee camps, mainly in the surroundings of Tyre.
Hezbollah announces repelling Israeli border patrol
For its part, the Lebanese army announced that Israeli soldiers had carried out a brief incursion on Wednesday in two points in southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah claimed to have fought Israeli forces.
“An Israeli enemy force crossed the Blue Line (separating the two countries, editor’s note) over a distance of approximately 400 meters into Lebanese territory (…)” in two sectors, “before withdrawing.” indicated the Lebanese army on X.
The pro-Iranian militia had indicated that clashes were taking place against Israeli forces “infiltrated” in the Lebanese border village of Maroun al-Ras.
Earlier in the day, a Hezbollah press release reported an Israeli infantry patrol repulsed while it was “trying to infiltrate Adaïssé”, a village in South Lebanon positioned on the border, just opposite the Israeli locality of Misgav Am.
The latter was announced as part of a “closed military zone” by Israel two days ago, ahead of its announcement of a ground invasion. According to the Shiite party, its fighters “fought” with Israeli soldiers, “inflicting casualties and forcing them to retreat.”
This is the first time since Israel announced its “targeted and limited ground operations” on the border that Hezbollah has reported such an attempted incursion, according to the Lebanese media L’Orient-Le Jour.
“All Zionist claims that the occupying forces have entered Lebanon are false,” the head of Hezbollah’s information department told Al-Jazeera yesterday.
Strike on southern suburbs of Beirut
In parallel with the ground offensive, exchanges of fire continued this morning. Israeli aircraft carried out a new strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, after a night of violent raids, the Lebanese National Information Agency reported.
Hezbollah, for its part, claimed responsibility for a “salvo of rockets” on the suburbs of Haifa, in the north of Israel, as well as against “Israeli soldiers gathering in Avivim”, near the Blue Line which separates southern Lebanon. from northern Israel.
Nathan Laporte with agencies
