Israeli military ‘to launch operations on Lebanon’s southern coast’
7 October 2024, 19:04
The military’s statement did not specify what operations would be carried out.
The Israeli military says it will soon launch operations on Lebanon’s southern coast, telling residents to stay off the beaches and fishermen off the sea for a 60-kilometre (36 miles) stretch along the Mediterranean.
The military’s statement did not specify what operations would be carried out.
Israeli forces have been carrying out intensified airstrikes across southern Lebanon and limited ground incursions near the border in a campaign against Hezbollah.
The statement told residents south of Lebanon’s Awali River to stay off beaches and the sea for their safety.
The river empties into the Mediterranean about 60 kilometers (36 miles) north of the Israeli-Lebanese border.
A year since Hamas’s surprise cross-border attack on southern Israel on October 7 2023, the war in Gaza rages on even as Israel is fighting a new war against Hezbollah, escalating its bombing campaign in Lebanon the past three weeks.
As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed earlier on Monday to press Israel’s campaigns on all sides, the military bombarded southern Lebanon with more than 120 strikes in an hour, saying it was targeting Hezbollah positions.
An earlier strike killed at least 10 Lebanese firefighters, the latest of dozens of first responders killed in recent weeks, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
There is also a mounting conflict with Iran — which backs both Hamas and Hezbollah — that threatens to drag the region into an even more dangerous conflagration.
And within Israel, two main commemorations for the day underscored the country’s divisions.
One was held by the government, the other in Tel Aviv by families of those killed on October 7 and of hostages still held in Gaza who refused to join the official ceremony.
