BEIRUT — Israeli forces have carried out a series of ground raids in southern Lebanon after waves of air strikes targetingwhat they called Hezbollah infrastructure.
According to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency, the incursions targeted at least seven towns including Qlailah, ar-Ramadiyah, Deir Aames and Qana.
Social media videos from Tyre, one of Lebanon’s biggest cities, show dust-covered crowds of people gathered around collapsed buildings.
On Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had urged residents to move north of the Zahrani River, about 40km (25 miles) from the Israeli border, saying it would act “with extreme force”.
Two sets of Israeli strikes hit Tyre and an area to the city’s east on Thursday morning, Lebanon’s NNA reported.
Footage from Tyre captured explosions and fires burning through the night and into Thursday morning.
Videos showed streets lit orange by flames, smoke-filled roads, and at least one vehicle engulfed in fire.
By daylight, a massive fireball was filmed erupting near a cluster of high-rise residential buildings, sending a mushroom-shaped column of smoke rising above the city skyline.
Stunned residents looked on as debris spread through surrounding streets.
Israel said the strikes targeted suspected Hezbollah infrastructure.
A Hezbollah member in Tyre said rescue and recovery crews have had to stop their work because conditions remain “too dangerous” and workers received calls from the Israeli military warning them to evacuate the area.
Ambulance teams in Tyre are continuing to drive through neighbourhoods urging residents to leave, amid fears of further strikes.
More Israeli evacuation orders were issued overnight as people were asleep. The scale of displacement is now straining the wider region.
Shelters in the city of Sidon have reached full capacity, the head of the municipality told the BBC, with no space remaining for newly displaced people. Tyre’s authorities are advising residents to travel further north to the capital, Beirut.
Additionally, NNA reported that an Israeli drone strike had hit a family trying to flee threatened villages in southern Lebanon for safety, killing six people, including children.
Wednesday’s evacuation order was the largest since the ceasefire took effect, covering about 14% of Lebanese territory.
The strikes came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced an expansion of its ground operation following Hezbollah drone attacks on troops occupying part of southern Lebanon and on civilians in northern Israel.
Wednesday’s evacuation order for Tyre was swiftly followed by air strikes. Residents watched with horror from balconies, filming on their phones, as Israeli forces hit the city.
The later evacuation order for areas south of the Zahrani River covers about 300 towns and villages. Many residents, including those already displaced from other parts of southern Lebanon, have nowhere obvious to go.
The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation in Lebanon warned the situation in the country’s south was “nearing a perilous tipping point”.
Also on Wednesday, Lebanese media reported a wave of Israeli strikes across the south and the eastern Bekaa Valley, with four people killed in the towns of Choukine and Nabatieh.
Hezbollah said on Wednesday that its fighters had clashed with Israeli forces “at point-blank range” in Zawtar al-Sharqiyeh, north of the Litani River. The town, about 30km (19 miles) from the border, lies outside the Israeli-declared “buffer zone”.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army is turning to the United States for additional systems and technologies to counter Hezbollah drones after several unmanned aircraft struck military sites in northern Israel on Wednesday, according to Israel’s public broadcaster KAN.
It said Ground Forces Commander Maj. Gen. Nadav Lotan is expected to travel to the US in the coming days to oversee purchases related to the growing drone threat.
KAN said the Lebanese group launched at least six drones toward northern Israel, with some exploding at military positions.
KAN added that the military was making major efforts to improve warning systems against explosive drones targeting soldiers, including a newly developed detection system designed to provide alerts similar to anti-tank missile warning systems.
The broadcaster said that Hezbollah continued launching explosive drones over the past 24 hours toward Israeli forces in southern Lebanon as well as troops stationed inside Israel, with some striking military sites.
It said the army still lacks an effective response to the attacks, despite repeated Israeli claims of advances in detecting and intercepting Hezbollah drones.
KAN also reported that several members of a security team in a northern Israeli settlement were injured after a Hezbollah explosive drone struck while they were attempting to assist Israeli soldiers targeted minutes earlier in a similar attack.
Source: Saudi Gazette