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Netanyahu: we are changing the balance of power in the north with Lebanon strikes

Israel’s prime minister, in his first statement since Israel launched a wave of attacks across Lebanon which have left at least 180 people dead, has told the Israeli citizens that he had promised Israel would change the balance of power in the north, and that is what the IDF is doing.

Benjamin Netanyahu said the missions being carried out were aimed at destroying what he claimed were thousands of missiles and rockets aimed at Israeli cities. Netanyahu said there were complicated days ahead, and urged Israeli citizens to follow home front defence guidelines.

In recent weeks Israel explicitly added to its war goal returning displaced people from northern Israel back to their home. About 60,000 Israelis have been forced to flee homes in northern Israel because of sustained exchanges of fire between the IDF and Hezbollah.

Earlier Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said “Israel will do whatever it takes through diplomacy – or through military means – to secure our northern border. It is what any other country would do.”

The IDF military spokesperson Daniel Hagari warned resident of eastern Lebanon to evacuate if they were near areas storing Hezbollah weapons. Lebanon’s interior ministry is setting aside schools as temporary shelters for displaced people.

ShareIsraeli military source: no immediate plans for a ground operation in Lebanon

An Israeli military official, speaking to Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said Israel is focused on aerial operations and has no immediate plans for a ground operation. They said the strikes today, which have killed at least 180 people, are aimed at curbing Hezbollah’s ability to launch more strikes into Israel.

While Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged near constant fire since the 7 October Hamas attack inside Israel, the two sides have generally avoided incursions across the UN-drawn blue line that separates the two countries.

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Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer has claimed that in launching a wide-ranging assault on Lebanon against what it deems to be Hezbollah targets, Israel is “doing precisely what any other country would do.”

Mencer said Hezbollah’s military actions firing into Israel had displaced over 60,000 Israelis from their homes, “becoming refugees here in our own homeland.”

Mencer claimed that Hezbollah had not stopped attacking Israel “not for a single day” since 8 October, the day after the Hamas attack in southern Israel. “No country can accept the wanton rocketing of its cities,” he said.

Lebanon’s health ministry has said that over 180 have been killed and more than 700 wounded in today’s Israeli airstrikes on the country. The IDF claims to have struck more than 300 targets. The interior ministry in Lebanon has said it is opening up school in Beirut and Tripoli to act as temporary shelters for displaced people.

Citing UN resolutions 1559 and 1701 which called for peace and the disarming of militias in Lebanon, and saying they have never been implemented, Mencer said “Hezbollah needs to move behind the Litani River and our northern border needs to be secured, which is precisely what is happening right now”. Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon, described a recent UN vote for Israel to end its decades-long occupation of the West Bank as “a shameful decision”.

Mencer went on to say, in reply to a question from the Breitbart website asking whether “the third Lebanon war had started”, that:

We will always prefer a peaceful settlement through negotiations, but that has not borne fruit in 11-and-a-half months now. So Israel will do whatever it takes through diplomacy – or through military means – to secure our northern border. It’s what any other country would do.

Answering a later question he added “Let me caveat that – no other country would wait for 11-and-a-half months, 11-and-a-half-months, to deal with this sort of aggression against our people”. He purposefully said the length of time twice to emphasise it.

Mencer also made a direct reference to Iran backing Hezbollah, telling the media:

Iran, of course, is behind Hezbollah. We know that any country which Iran gets involved in becomes a failed state. Lebanon is just such an example. Because of Iran’s meddling through their local proxy, Hezbollah, the country has become a failed state. We believe that the majority of Lebanese people are against Hezbollah. Hezbollah needs to be ejected from your politics, from your country, Lebanon. And peace needs to be restored to our northern border.

ShareDeath toll from Israeli strikes in Lebanon rises to 182 killed, with 727 injured, including women and children

At least 182 people were killed and 727 were wounded, including women, children and medics, in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon on Monday, Reuters reports, citing the country’s health ministry.

These figures come on top of the dozens killed and thousands injured last week when pagers and walkie-talkies were detonated inside Lebanon in what is widely attributed to have been an Israeli attack attempting to target Hezbollah operatives.

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Updated at 15.00 CEST

Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer is giving an English-language briefing. He has begun by listing some specific damages he claims were caused inside Israel and Israeli-controlled territory by Hezbollah rockets over the last few days and said that as Israel’s prime minister and defense minister have made clear “Israel’s patience is not inexhaustible”.

He outlined a number of measures he said Israel had taken “to get civilians out of harm’s way in Lebanon”, and, echoing comments from the IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari, said:

Hezbollah endangers the people of Lebanon. They use civilian civilians as human shields to hide its weaponry and carry out attacks against Israel from within that country. Israel could not be clearer to Lebanese civilians [that] if you live next to properties or homes in which Hezbollah is hiding its rocket launchers and weaponry you should evacuate immediately.

Mencer is taking questions from the international media in English. I will bring you any key lines that emerge.

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Israel has claimed the attacks mounted in Lebanon today have been “extensive, proactive airstrikes, based on precise intelligence, aimed at degrading the capabilities and infrastructure of the Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanon.”

IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said “This is infrastructure that Hezbollah has built over many years. So far, since this morning, more than three hundred terrorist targets across Lebanon have been struck.”

Lebanon’s health ministry has said that at least 100 people have been killed and 400 people wounded, including women, children and medics.

Hagari told Israelis that “We are continuing to conduct a situational assessment regarding the home front, and at this stage, there is no change to the defensive guidelines. However, it is important to remain vigilant and alert.”

Hezbollah earlier today claimed a barrage of rockets fired into Israel were in response to the strikes on eastern Lebanon.

Hageri continued:

We are continuing to monitor Hezbollah’s preparations in the field in order to proactively thwart attacks against Israeli territory, and we are systematically broadening our strikes against Hezbollah. We are preparing to strike terrorist targets in the Beqaa valley region soon. Hezbollah stores strategic weapons in civilian buildings, knowingly using the population as human shields and endangering them. I urge the Lebanese residents of the villages in the Beqaa valley who are inside or near houses where rockets and weapons are stored, to move away immediately.

ShareLebanon to open schools as emergency shelters amid ‘heavy displacement’ of population caused by Israeli airstrikes

Responding to the displacement of people after Israel launched a string of airstrikes on southern and eastern Lebanon leading to at least 100 deaths and hundreds more being injured, Lebanon’s interior ministry has opened schools in Beirut, Tripoli and in the east and the south to act as temporary refugee shelters. Heavy traffic and chaotic scenes have been reported as people try to flee.

Thousands of people have already been displaced from their homes in southern Lebanon and northern Israel after months of fire being exchanged by Israel and Hezbollah since the 7 October attack last year.

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Israel’s army radio reports that the IDF have published an Arabic language map identifying the area in Lebanon it is attacking, and ordering Lebanese citizens to evacuate their homes.

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Israel’s Channel 12 has spoken to Israeli Dudi Yitzhaki, who lives in the community settlement of Givat Avni in Galilee. He told the network he and his family were “30 seconds and three centimetres” from death after their home was struck by a Hezbollah rocket.

He said “I was in the middle of a work phone call outside when the siren started. I entered the house and went in the reinforced room. It was a matter of 30 seconds and then we heard an unbelievable explosion. I immediately realised it had hit the house.”

Earlier the IDF said it had repelled the majority of a barrage of approximately 35 projectiles fired towards Israel from Lebanon. Hezbollah, in a statement, claimed responsibility for the barrage, and said it was in response to Israeli strikes inside Lebanon.

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Here is the quote, via Reuters and in translation, from IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari, who said “The sights now from south Lebanon are of secondary explosions of Hezbollah weapons, which are exploding inside houses. In every house we are attacking there are weapons. Rockets, missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles that were meant for and aimed at killing Israeli civilians.”

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According to breaking news lines from the Reuters news agency, Israeli military spokesperson Rr Adm Daniel Hagari, in a Hebrew-language briefing, has claimed that houses struck by the IDF in Bekaa in Lebanon contained missiles and drones. He claimed Israel had only targeted houses that contained Hezbollah weapons, and that Israel intends to continue striking at strategic weapon stores. He said civilians in the Bekaa valley area should evacuate.

Lebanon’s health ministry has said at least 100 people have been killed and 400 wounded by Israeli strikes today in Lebanon, including women, children and medics. This adds to the dozens killed and thousands injured last week in Lebanon when pagers and walkie-talkies were detonated, in an attack widely attributed to an Israeli attempt to target Hezbollah operatives.

More details soon …

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At least 41,455 Palestinians have been killed and 95,878 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry has said in its latest daily update.

ShareResidents from south Lebanon flee north following Israeli barrage

William Christou

William Christou reports from Beirut for the Guardian

Residents of south Lebanon have begun fleeing north in a renewed wave of displacement as Israeli warplanes pound wide-swathes of the country’s south.

The Israeli aerial assault is the most intense yet, killing over 100 people and wounding over 400 more, including women, children and paramedics, the Lebanese Health Ministry said on Monday.

Roads leading out of south Lebanon were choked with traffic as people fled the Israeli bombing. Areas that have served as safe zones for the displaced since last year have now found themselves within the crosshairs of the Israeli military.

“The airstrikes have reached us, on the outskirts of [Tyre]. There was a strike just 100 meters behind the [displacement] center, there were three of them,” Bilal Kashmar, a coordinator in a displacement center in the southern city of Tyre, said. He showed a video of a plume of smoke rising just across the street from the shelter which houses hundreds of families.

“The displaced have stopped coming to us, those that want to flee are leaving the south entirely,” Kashmar said.

Tyre has hosted thousands of individuals displaced by fighting, as the city has largely been spared by airstrikes until now. Prior to Monday’s fighting, a little over 110,000 were displaced from south Lebanon.

“The airstrikes aren’t stopping. People are scared,” Hassan Dabouk, the head of the Tyre Union of Municipalities, said.

Videos of collapsed buildings, bombs falling from the sky and resulting explosions that shook camera-people’s hands circulated on social media as people tried to track the extent of Israel’s bombing campaign. In one video, a driver films as smoke fills the air on the road ahead following a strike. “Stop, stop, stop!” One of the passengers yell as the video cuts.

“An important thing to note is that the roads are not safe. There is bombing from where we are [in Tyre] all the way to Saida. One needs to think before they leave in this situation,” Dabouk said.

Those who have loved ones in the south made public appeals for any empty apartments or rooms that might host their family members who fled Israeli airstrikes. Spontaneous initiatives to provide housing emerged, with individuals marshaling calls for available rooms and hostels offering discounted rates for displaced people.

“We are collecting numbers right now from people that have connections in safe areas, in Druze and Christian areas”, Faten Jebai, a journalist from south Lebanon, said. Jebai has urged those without a place to reach out to her, as she and other volunteers work to connect displaced those who will open up their homes or rent at low prices.

“More than 80 members of my family are now leaving the south, so I am searching for them but also for my friends and friends of the family,” Jebai added.

ShareIsraeli airstrikes are ‘a genocide in every sense of the word’ says Lebanon caretaker prime minister

Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister has called Israel’s wave of airstrikes “a genocide in every sense of the word.”

Najib Mikati made the comments at the start of a cabinet meeting in Beirut on Monday in which he said that Israel’s airstrikes aim to destroy Lebanon’s towns and villages, according to an update from the Associated Press news agency.

Mikati said that the Lebanese government is calling on the United Nations, the UN Security Council and world nations to “deter the aggression.”

ShareWomen, children and paramedics among more than 100 killed and 400 wounded by Israeli strikes on Lebanon, health ministry says

William Christou

More than 100 people have been killed and 400 wounded, “including women, children and paramedics”, from ongoing Israeli airstrikes in south Lebanon today, the country’s health ministry said. This is the single highest daily death toll since fighting between Israel and Hezbollah started in October.

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