On Tuesday, tensions escalated considerably as Israel targeted Iran-supported Hizbullah positions in southern Lebanon, while the latter retaliated by launching attacks on military installations in northern Israel. This raised anxieties about the emergence of a major conflict after Lebanon endured its most fatal day in recent memory.
In a statement, Israel’s defence force reported that it had successfully targeted a multitude of Hizbullah strongholds during the night, following Monday’s aerial assaults on the militia, which, according to Lebanese reports, led to approximately 500 deaths and displaced thousands.
In a counter claim, Hizbullah reported that its targets included a significant Israeli explosives facility situated 60km within Israel, which was hit with Fadi rockets around 4am. It also detailed attacks on the Megiddo airfield, situated near the northern city of Afula in Israel, carried out three times throughout the night.
After spending almost a year combating Hamas on its southern border in Gaza, Israel has now turned its focus to its northern frontier. Here, Hizbullah has been launching rockets into Israel, acting in solidarity with Hamas, another group receiving support from Iran.
As tensions heighten, more than 30 global flights to and from Beirut this Tuesday have been cancelled, as reported by the website of Rafic Hariri International Airport. Airlines affected include Qatar Airways, Turkish Airways, and several airlines from the United Arab Emirates.
The bureau of the interim Lebanese prime minister, Najib Mikati, announced he planned to travel to New York, the location of the ongoing United Nations General Assembly, to foster ‘further contacts’ in light of the intensified Israeli assaults on Lebanon, that began on Monday.
The current discord has sparked worries that the United States, being a close Israeli ally, and Iran, with its influence across the Middle East via proxies such as Hizbullah, Yemen’s Houthis and armed factions in Iraq, risk being embroiled in a broader military conflict.
Last week’s noteworthy security infraction, in which thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hizbullah members exploded, marking the organisation’s most impactful security compromise to date, has added to the challenges faced by Hizbullah. Israel is perceived to have been behind the event, despite neither confirming nor denying its involvement.
Israel’s prowess in technology and intelligence has rendered it a dominant force in both Gaza and Lebanon, enabling it to locate and eliminate leading Hamas leaders and Hizbullah chiefs. On the flank of the UN General Assembly, the foreign ministers from the G7 biggest democracies warned in a joint declaration that owing to heightened tensions, the Middle East could be dragged into a wide-ranging conflict which may not benefit any nation.
Should there be an escalation to full-scale war, it could lead to a regional instability in the Middle East, over and above the existing debilitating war in Gaza that shows no signs of abating. Following Israel’s actions, which seem to be as though they aim to corner Hizbullah, a well-placed insider within the Hizbullah faction has said that the group is in an extraordinary phase of encounter, assuring that Hizbullah doesn’t desire a broader war.
The Israeli armed forces revealed that they had targeted a militant cell of Hizbullah and had attacked other Hizbullah targets in the southern regions with artillery and tanks. Missile interceptor fragments were found scattered across several regions in north Israel.
After a series of hostilities dating from October last year with the commencement of the Gaza war, Israel instructed Lebanese inhabitants to vacate areas storing weapons for the armed movement. As a consequence, highways to the north were jammed as families transported their belongings and relatives out of south Lebanon.
According to Nasser Yassin, the Lebanese minister tasked with managing the crisis response, around 89 provisional shelters comprising schools and other establishments have been prepared, offering refuge for over 26,000 populace fleeing what he branded as “Israeli atrocities”.
On Monday, Israel announced it had targeted Hizbullah in parts of south, east and north Lebanon, including infrastructure for militants, command centres and rocket launchers. Around 1,600 Hizbullah targets in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley were hit by the Israeli air force.
Lebanon’s health department reported at least 492 casualties, 35 of them children, and 1,645 injured. A Lebanese official pointed out that this is the highest daily death rate from conflict that Lebanon has witnessed since the civil war from 1975-1990 – as per Reuters.