Israel Pounds Lebanon With More Than 120 Air Strikes as Netanyahu Deepens Operations

Israel pounded Lebanon with more than 120 air strikes on Tuesday, as Lebanese security sources told Reuters that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his military was deepening its operations in the country.

Reuters reported that the bombing raids further strained a ceasefire announced on April 16 meant to halt fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, and that Israeli strikes hit across southern and eastern Lebanon on Tuesday.

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Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes in recent hours had killed 31 people and wounded 40, with state news agency NNA reporting early on Wednesday that 14 people were killed in the town of Burj al-Shamali in southern Lebanon.

Reuters also said at least three strikes hit near the Beaufort Castle, a nearly 900-year-old fortress in southern Lebanon, and that at least three strikes hit near Lebanon’s largest water reservoir at the Qaraoun Dam in east Lebanon.

In a separate account, Palestine Chronicle said Israeli attacks intensified across southern Lebanon on Tuesday with airstrikes, artillery shelling and expanded ground operations continuing despite an ongoing US-mediated ceasefire.

Netanyahu told Israel’s Security Cabinet that the Israeli military was operating with “large forces on the ground” and controlling strategic areas, and he claimed the army was “fortifying the security belt” to protect northern Israeli towns.

An Anadolu Ajansı report said Lebanese officials estimated that Israeli attacks have killed nearly 3,200 people, injured more than 9,600 and displaced over 1.6 million since early March, while also saying the Israeli army continued to violate the ceasefire that took effect on April 17 and was later extended by the United States until early July.

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Radio France reported that in the Naqoura area in southern Lebanon, Israeli soldiers fired warning shots at French UNIFIL blue helmets and confronted the UNIFIL chief of staff, who is French, with other Israeli soldiers pointing weapons at him.

In the same week’s reporting, the Palestine Chronicle said Lebanon’s National News Agency reported four women were killed after an Israeli airstrike struck a house in the town of Maareke in the Tyre district.

Palestine Chronicle added that rescue teams continued searching through rubble for a missing family believed trapped beneath the destroyed building.

La Presse reported that Israel announced it would “intensify” its ground operations in Lebanon and extend its “control” on the ground after destroying the Qasmiyeh bridge in the south, which it said is used by pro-Iranian Hezbollah.

La Presse said Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the targeting and destruction of infrastructure and vital facilities, calling it “a dangerous escalation and a flagrant violation of Lebanon's sovereignty,” and said it was “seen as a prelude to a ground invasion.”

The Israeli army said it would intensify its “targeted ground operations” and its strikes, with Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir saying, “We will not stop until the threat is pushed far from the border and long-term security is assured for the residents of northern Israel,” and Effie Defrin saying the ground operations would begin “this week.”

Global Banking & Finance Review | Western Alternative reported that Netanyahu said his military was operating to “capture and controlling areas” and that he was “fortifying the security strip to protect the northern communities,” referring to a self-declared security zone occupied by Israeli troops several kilometres inside southern Lebanon.

Reuters also said Israel’s military official described operations “beyond the Forward Defense Line” to remove direct threats to the citizens of the State of Israel and Israeli soldiers, “in accordance with the directives of the political echelon.”