Situation at a glance: Israel announces further attacks on Hezbollah

Although Israel’s air strikes in Lebanon have forced tens of thousands of civilians to flee since Monday, the government in Jerusalem wants to increase military pressure on Hezbollah. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced further attacks on the pro-Iranian militia, which has been firing rockets at northern Israel practically every day since the start of the Gaza war almost a year ago. Rocket alarms were sounded early this morning in the Israeli coastal metropolis of Tel Aviv and other cities in the country. The escalation of violence in the Middle East is one of the most important topics of the current UN General Assembly in New York and will be the focus of a special session of the UN Security Council today.

Israel’s military and the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon have been fighting for months in the border region between the two countries, which has intensified significantly in recent days. The latest Israeli attacks, which have left hundreds dead and even more injured, are the most serious in almost two decades and are fueling fears of an uncontrollable escalation in the region – especially since Israel is simultaneously involved in military conflicts with the terrorist organization Hamas, an ally of Hezbollah.

In the morning, the sirens of the alarm systems blared practically throughout central Israel, as the army announced on the online platform X. A rocket fired from Lebanon was intercepted over the greater Tel Aviv area. No further details about the rocket attack were initially provided. The last time a rocket alarm was triggered in Tel Aviv was at the end of May, when it was due to an attack by Hamas. It is also the first time since the massacre on October 7 last year and the subsequent start of the Gaza war that a rocket from Lebanon has reached the greater Tel Aviv area.

“If you have a rocket in your living room…”

“We will continue to act against Hezbollah,” said Netanyahu, despite harsh criticism of the deaths of many civilians in Israeli air strikes in the northern neighboring country. He stressed again that the war was not directed against the Lebanese people, but only against Hezbollah – but anyone hiding weapons for the militia would also be targeted: “Anyone who has a rocket in their living room and a rocket in their garage will no longer have a home.”

In the evening, according to the army, Israel’s air force again attacked dozens of Hezbollah military facilities in the east and south of Lebanon, including weapons depots and rocket launchers. According to Israel, these are often deliberately placed in residential areas in order to use civilians as human shields. Thousands of private homes have been converted into military bases for the militia in this way, said army spokesman Daniel Hagari. Netanyahu called on the Lebanese to free themselves from the clutches of Hezbollah, which operates like a state within a state in the coastal country.

Israel sees Hezbollah already severely weakened

“We must not give Hezbollah a break. We must continue with all our strength,” said Israeli Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi. The militia has already been drastically weakened by the strategic successes of his army, said Defense Minister Joav Galant. “The Hezbollah of today is no longer the same Hezbollah we knew a week ago.”

According to military sources, the heavily armed militia has used around 9,000 rockets and drones to attack Israel since the beginning of the war against its ally Hamas in the Gaza Strip, i.e. since the beginning of October last year. According to Galant, tens of thousands of its rockets were destroyed in the latest attacks. Before the Hezbollah attacks began on October 8, its arsenal was estimated at 150,000 rockets, drones and cruise missiles.

Militia confirms death of its missile chief

The current military operation in Lebanon under the code name “Arrows of the North” should be ended as quickly as possible, stressed army spokesman Hagari. That is why the military is attacking with concentrated forces. However, the Israelis must also be prepared for the fact that the operation could last longer.

Several members of Hezbollah’s leadership are said to have already been killed in the military operation. The most recent to be killed was the head of the rocket unit, Ibrahim Muhammad Kubaisi – he and two other Hezbollah commanders were killed in a “targeted attack” in a suburb of the capital Beirut, Israel’s army announced. Hezbollah also confirmed Kubaisi’s death. According to the army, he was responsible for rocket attacks on Israel and attacks on Israeli civilians, among other things.

According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, the airstrike destroyed two floors of a building, killed 6 people and injured 15 others. In total, more than 550 people have been killed and almost 2,000 injured in the Israeli attacks since Monday.

Lebanon in deep crisis even before wave of attacks

The people of Lebanon were already in dire straits before the current wave of attacks began. The economy is in a deep crisis, and large parts of the population live in poverty. Nevertheless, according to UN figures, the small Mediterranean state has taken in more refugees than any other country in the world, relative to its population – around 1.5 million people seeking help have been taken in from Syria alone since the civil war there began in 2011.

Now there are also numerous internally displaced people. As a result of the Israeli air strikes, many Lebanese people panicked – tens of thousands fled and tried to get north on hopelessly overcrowded roads. According to authorities, 27,000 people alone fled from the south and the Bekaa Valley in the east. More than 250 schools were therefore converted into emergency shelters at short notice. Hundreds of people are even said to have fled to the neighboring civil war-torn country of Syria, where the situation is hardly less precarious.

With the attacks in Lebanon, Israel also wants to persuade Hezbollah to withdraw from the border area between the two countries. Since the beginning of the Gaza war following the terrorist attack by Hamas and other Islamist extremists on Israel on October 7 last year, the militia has regularly shelled the north of the Jewish state – in solidarity with Hamas, as it says. Israel’s military is firing back. There have been deaths on both sides of the border, and in Israel alone around 60,000 people have fled their homes. The return of people to the north of the country is a declared war aim of Netanyahu’s government.

Britain sends hundreds of soldiers

Iranian President Massoud Peseschkian said in a speech to the UN General Assembly in New York that it was obvious that the “terrorist crimes” of the Israeli army and the “aggression against Lebanon” could not go unanswered. Moreover, the presence of foreign powers in the Middle East was a “source of instability”. Peseschkian called on the countries in the region to work together more, as their fates were inextricably linked. At the same time, the Islamic Republic of Iran was “determined to ensure its security without destabilizing others”.

The escalation of violence is being watched with concern not only in the immediate neighboring countries. The British government has instructed all its compatriots to leave Lebanon immediately. In addition, 700 soldiers will be relocated to the nearby Mediterranean island of Cyprus “in the next few hours” – the government’s statement on Tuesday evening suggests that this is being done in preparation for a possible evacuation operation.