Israel’s prime minister has made a direct appeal to urge the Lebanese people to throw out Hezbollah and avoid “destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza”.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s appeal on Tuesday came as Israel expanded its ground invasion against Hezbollah by sending thousands more troops into a new zone in south-west Lebanon.
Netanyahu also claimed the Israel Defense Forces had killed the successor to Hezbollah’s former leader, Hassan Nasrallah, but the IDF later said it could not confirm Hashem Safieddine’s death.
Elsewhere, Hezbollah’s fighters launched barrages of rockets towards the Israeli port city of Haifa for the third consecutive day, injuring 12 people.
During a video address directed at the people of Lebanon, Netanyahu said: “You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza.
“I say to you, the people of Lebanon: Free your country from Hezbollah so that this war can end.”
Hezbollah has remained defiant despite three weeks of intense Israeli strikes and other attacks that Lebanese officials say have killed more than 1,400 people and displaced another 1.2 million.
Earlier on Tuesday Hassan Nasrallah’s former deputy, Naim Qassem, insisted Hezbollah had overcome the recent “painful blows” from Israel and that its capabilities were “fine”.
Israel has gone on the offensive after almost a year of cross-border fighting sparked by the war in Gaza, saying it wants to ensure the safe return of tens of thousands of residents of Israeli border areas displaced by Hezbollah rocket, missile and drone attacks.
The hostilities have escalated steadily since Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of Palestinians on 8 October 2023, the day after its ally Hamas’s deadly attack on southern Israel.
On Tuesday morning, the IDF announced that reservists from its 146th Division had begun “limited, localized, targeted operational activities” in south-western Lebanon.
It joined three standing army divisions which have been operating in central and eastern areas of southern Lebanon since the invasion began on 30 September – reportedly bringing the total number of soldiers deployed to over 15,000.
The IDF said troops had taken control of what it called a Hezbollah “combat compound” in the border village of Maroun al-Ras and published photos showing what it said was a loaded rocket launcher in an olive grove, as well as weapons and equipment inside a residential building.
Drone footage meanwhile showed widespread destruction in the nearby village of Yaroun, which was an initial target of the invasion.
Meanwhile, the UN special co-ordinator for Lebanon and the head of the UN peacekeeping force warned in a joint statement that the humanitarian impact of the conflict was “nothing short of catastrophic”.
Lebanon’s government says as many as 1.2 million people have fled their homes over the past year. Almost 180,000 people are in approved centres for the displaced. (BBC)