{"id":295834,"date":"2024-10-01T06:16:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-01T06:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=295834"},"modified":"2024-10-02T07:29:18","modified_gmt":"2024-10-02T07:29:18","slug":"israel-threatens-what-could-be-ground-offensive-against-hezbollah-in-lebanon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=295834","title":{"rendered":"Israel threatens what could be ground offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jason Burke, Peter Beaumont and William Christou \u2013 The Guardian Sept 30, 2024<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Israel has threatened what could be an imminent ground offensive against Hezbollah<\/a> in Lebanon as it warned of the \u201cnext phase\u201d in its fight against Hezbollah and declared parts of the north of the country a closed military zone.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Yoav Gallant.Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

As Israeli airstrikes continued to hit Lebanon, including central Beirut for the first time in nearly 20 years, the country\u2019s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, reportedly told community leaders in Israel\u2019s north on Monday that the \u201cnext phase of the war against Hezbollah<\/a> will begin soon\u201d. It came as Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel\u2019s prime minister, warned Tehran it could strike anywhere in the region at will. \u201cThere is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach,\u201d he said in a video addressed to the Iranian people.<\/p>\n

Gallant had earlier told troops in northern Israel: \u201cWe will use all of our capabilities \u2013 including you.\u201d The Israeli military later declared areas of Metula, Misgav Am and Kfar Giladi in northern Israel<\/a> a closed military zone.<\/p>\n

The US president, Joe Biden<\/a>, said he was aware of Israel\u2019s plans to launch an operation into Lebanon as he urged against such a move. \u201cI\u2019m more aware than you might know and I\u2019m comfortable with them stopping,\u201d he told reporters at the White House. \u201cWe should have a ceasefire now.\u201d<\/p>\n

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday that Israel had informed the US about \u201climited\u201d operations focused on Hezbollah infrastructure near the border with Lebanon<\/a>. \u201cThey have been informing us about a number of operations, I know I\u2019ve seen reports about ground operations [\u2026] They have at this time told us that those are limited operations focused on Hezbollah infrastructure near the border. But we\u2019re in continuous conversations with them about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The threats from Netanyahu and Gallant came just days after an airstrike south of Beirut killed Hassan Nasrallah, the veteran leader of Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, a major Israeli raid also hit ports in Yemen run by the Houthi militia group, which is also backed by Iran, fuelling fears of a slide towards a devastating regional conflict on multiple fronts.<\/p>\n

Though many analysts caution that senior Israeli officials have repeatedly made threats and that there are no signs of a major mobilisation by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), there is now acute international concern that a substantial Israeli force could cross the contested border into southern Lebanon and reach Hezbollah\u2019s strongholds within days.<\/p>\n

A US official told Reuters it had observed positioning of Israeli troops that suggests that a ground incursion into Lebanon could be imminent.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s assassination of Nasrallah \u2013 the most powerful leader in Tehran\u2019s \u201caxis of resistance\u201d against Israeli and US interests in the Middle East \u2013 was one of the heaviest blows in decades to both Hezbollah and Iran.<\/p>\n

But Netanyahu and senior military commanders in Israel appear committed to continuing what has become a region-wide effort to target longstanding enemies.<\/p>\n

Seven top military officials and about another dozen senior commanders have been killed in the continuing Israeli air offensive in Lebanon, which IDF officials say is aimed at stopping Hezbollah\u2019s cross-border fire that is stopping some 60,000 Israelis from returning to homes evacuated since the beginning of the war last October.<\/p>\n

Lebanon\u2019s health ministry said on Sunday that more than 1,000 Lebanese have been killed and 6,000 wounded in the past two weeks, without saying how many were civilians. The government said a million people \u2013 a fifth of the population \u2013 have fled their homes.<\/p>\n

In a three-minute video clip in English, Netanyahu accused the Islamic Republic of subjugating its citizens and directly threatened Iran\u2019s leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is nowhere we will not go to protect our people and protect our country \u2026. There is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach,\u201d Netanyahu said.<\/p>\n

Addressing the Iranian people, Netanyahu said that that Iran\u2019s \u201ctyrants\u201d don\u2019t care about their future and that when Iran is finally free, everything will be different.<\/p>\n

An airstrike early on Monday hit an apartment building in central Beirut \u2013 the first to hit in the heart of the Lebanese capital since the short war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006 \u2013 and killed three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a small, leftist Palestinian faction. Videos showed ambulances and a crowd gathered near the building on a busy, shop-lined thoroughfare in a mainly Sunni district.<\/p>\n

The Palestinian militant group Hamas said its leader in Lebanon was killed on Monday in an Israeli strike on the country\u2019s south. \u201cFatah Sharif Abu al-Amine, the leader of Hamas \u2026 in Lebanon and member of the movement\u2019s leadership abroad\u201d was killed in an airstrike on his \u201chome in the al-Bass camp in south Lebanon\u201d, a Hamas statement said.<\/p>\n

The Beirut strike, carried out using a drone, according to a source quoted by Agence France-Presse, hit near the Kola intersection, a popular reference point in the city, where taxis and buses gather to pick up passengers.<\/p>\n

Israel had confined its strikes on Lebanon\u2019s capital to its southern suburbs. The airstrike threw into doubt which areas of Beirut were still safe from Israel\u2019s expanding aerial campaign.<\/p>\n

Paris and Washington, joined by Arab, western and European countries, called last week for Israel and Hezbollah to agree an \u201cimmediate 21-day ceasefire\u201d and to \u201cgive diplomacy a chance\u201d. Israel dismissed the plan.<\/p>\n

The French foreign minister, Jean-No\u00ebl Barrot, urged de-escalation during a visit to Lebanon on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe proposal for a previous ceasefire in Lebanon is still on the table,\u201d Barrot said from the French ambassador\u2019s residence in Beirut on Monday afternoon, adding that \u201cthere are diplomatic solutions in Lebanon, despite the intensive Israeli strikes targeting the southern suburbs of Beirut.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hezbollah\u2019s acting leader has vowed the group will fight on following the assassination by Israel on Friday of Nasrallah.<\/p>\n

In the first speech by a Hezbollah official since Nasrallah\u2019s death, Sheikh Naim Qassem said the group was prepared for an Israeli ground invasion and that it would continue to to fire rockets as deep as 150km (93 miles) into Israeli territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we are doing is the bare minimum \u2026 We know that the battle may be long,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will win, as we won in the liberation of 2006,\u201d he added, referring to the last major conflict between the two foes.<\/p>\n

Also on Monday, the Lebanese army announced that one of its soldiers had been killed in an Israeli drone strike that targeted a motorcycle at a checkpoint.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon says the US is sending an additional \u201cfew thousand\u201d troops to the Middle East to bolster security and to be prepared to defend Israel if necessary.<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Israeli Defence Minister Gallant warns that the \u201cnext phase of the war against Hezbollah will begin soon\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[118,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-295834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-7-10-gaza-war","category-Israel_Anti-Semitism_Zionism_and_US-UK_allies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=295834"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":295837,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295834\/revisions\/295837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=295834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=295834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=295834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}