Israel Under Fire From Hezbollah as Cross-Border Battle Worsens

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(Bloomberg) — Israel said a new barrage of missiles was fired from Lebanon a day after a Hezbollah drone strike killed four soldiers, as cross-border fighting intensified between the two sides.

The Israeli military reported on Monday that 90 shells had crossed from Lebanon, and sirens were later heard in the center of the country. A large number of people rushed to shelters, according to the Israeli army, which later said that all threats directed at the central region had been intercepted.

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Sunday’s attack by Hezbollah on the camp south of Haifa wounded more than 50 soldiers in addition to killing four soldiers, in one of the deadliest cross-border attacks by the militant group in at least a year. An Israeli air strike in the remote Ehden area north of Beirut killed nine people on Monday, the Lebanese Health Ministry said, as Israel expanded its offensive in the neighboring country.

Hezbollah’s attacks show it can still strike at least 40 kilometers (25 miles) inside Israel despite weeks of attacks on its leaders and missile stockpile, part of Israel’s efforts to weaken the group after more than a year of clashes. The Israeli army sent tanks and troops across the border, and the mountainous villages and dense forests of the area became a major battlefield.

The Israeli army is also intensifying its strikes against the Iranian-backed Hamas movement in northern Gaza, where the war has been raging for more than a year. The Hamas-run Health Ministry in the Strip said earlier Monday that 62 people had been killed in the past 24 hours.

Israeli raids on southern and central Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley on Sunday killed at least 51 people, on one of the bloodiest days in the country in recent weeks, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. He added that nearly half of this number were killed in the Chouf region, to which many fled from southern Lebanon.

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Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant said on Sunday that the army was targeting border villages that he claimed were the sites of Hezbollah tunnels and weapons stockpiles, vowing to permanently expel the group so that tens of thousands of displaced Israelis could return to their homes.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked United Nations peacekeepers to withdraw “immediately” from southern Lebanon after a number of them were injured last week in an incident that Israel said occurred when the army was trying to fire on Hezbollah positions. The mission, known as UNIFIL, urged the Israeli army to ensure the safety of UN representatives.

Israel promised a major retaliation for the missile attack launched by Iran on October 1, with deliberations on how and when to keep the matter secret. Israeli air defenses thwarted most of the launch of about 200 ballistic missiles, although property damage was caused by interception debris.

The Netanyahu government said that a response would come soon. This has sparked feverish consultations with Washington, which, despite its support for Israel’s right to respond to attack, is urging the country to avoid Iran’s nuclear facilities and energy sector.

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When far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich was asked on Israel’s Radio 94 FM whether he was “happy with the direction the response to Iran is going,” he said: “Without going into details, in one word – yes.”

An Israeli official said the delivery of the US-supplied THAAD missile defense system is scheduled to begin on Tuesday. Washington pledged to deploy the THAAD system and the American forces accompanying it on Sunday to strengthen its ally’s defenses. Israeli experts said that this would make it unlikely that Netanyahu would impose sanctions on any action without Washington’s support, given the presence of American forces running the regime.

Gaza fighting

Israel has intensified its fighting in northern Gaza against Hamas, the group whose raid on Israel on October 7 last year sparked the ongoing war in the Palestinian territories. About 1,200 Israelis were killed in that attack, while more than a year of fighting in Gaza has left more than 41,000 Palestinians dead, according to health officials in the Hamas-run territory.

The Israeli military said it targeted Hamas in an airstrike in the Deir al-Balah area on Sunday night, targeting a center integrated into a complex that previously served as a hospital. The Gaza Ministry of Health said that four people were killed there.

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Gaza was devastated by the conflict, which led to the displacement of many of its residents. The United Nations World Food Program said on Saturday that the main crossings leading to the north were closed amid the escalating fighting, meaning no food aid had entered since October 1.

The Coordination Agency for Government Activities in the Territories, the Israeli agency that oversees humanitarian efforts in Gaza, said that Israel is not preventing aid from entering the Strip.

The United States classifies both Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations. About 400 Israeli soldiers were killed in fighting in Gaza and on the Lebanese front.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi visited Iraq on Sunday and Oman on Monday as part of a tour aimed at mobilizing regional opposition to any retaliation by Israel. He visited Saudi Arabia and Qatar last week.

– With the help of Sherif Tariq and Dana Khraish.

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