Israel extends its invasion to all of southern Lebanon and deploys another 7,000 soldiers

First, the Israeli army issued a warning in Arabic to the — now very few — Lebanese who are heading for the beaches or using boats in the southwest of the country not to do so, a sign that naval forces were going to start operating in the area. Then, on Tuesday, it announced the start of a “limited, localized and targeted” ground incursion in the area, for which the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has added a division of reservists. With some 7,000 soldiers, it is the first such formation to participate in combat operations and joins three other divisions that have been focusing their advance in the southeast, in parallel to the dozens of daily air strikes, as on the previous day, with over 100 fighters airborne at the same time. Israel has thus extended its invasion to the entire south of Lebanon.

A short time later, Hezbollah’s number two, Naim Qassem, delivered his second speech since the assassination of the party-militia’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, last month. In a more confident tone than the first, but also from an unidentified location and via Hezbollah’s television channel, Al Manar, Qassem again insisted that the reality of the fighting, with between 120 and 230 projectiles fired at Israel every day, shows that Hezbollah has “put the loss of Nasrallah,” its leader for 32 years, behind it and that its military infrastructure is “intact.” “Our capabilities are fine and our fighters are deployed along the frontlines,” he added.

In parallel, and in a new attempt to flex its muscles, the militia carried out its largest rocket offensive in the entire year of war to date, launching two waves of more than a hundred projectiles at Haifa, although without causing any fatalities or prompting the authorities to announce new security restrictions on the population. The attack coincided with October 8, the anniversary of the first Hezbollah rocket launch in solidarity with the Israeli military response to the Hamas-led massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023.

Qassem also said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is living an “illusion” by invading southern Lebanon because “he cannot achieve his goals.” “Israel said it will return its settlers to northern Israel, but we vow to displace thousands more,” the Lebanese militia leader stated.

Although Qassem said the escalation of the conflict “was not of Hezbollah’s own free will,” he added the militia is prepared to fight it no matter how long it lasts, even after suffering the most severe blows in its four-decade history. The latest, although minor compared to Nasrallah, was the death of its head of logistics and budgets, Suhail Hussein Husseini, in a bombing south of Beirut, as announced by Israel. Hezbollah has not yet confirmed or denied the report.

Despite all this, Qassem stressed, Hezbollah fighters not only continue to launch rockets at Israel on a daily basis, but they are also slowing the advance of Israeli troops in the south. Most of the projectiles have been intercepted by the Israeli Iron Dome missile defense system, but others have hit the country’s largest port city, around thirty kilometers (18 miles) from the border with Lebanon, and its surrounding towns. Haifa, in addition to being Israel’s third-largest city after Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, is a critical hub for industry and the largest population center in the north of the country.

The battle is being waged between Israeli forces and the Shia militia, with the Lebanese regular army remaining on the sidelines, apart from a one-off response last week to the death of two Lebanese soldiers under Israeli fire. Although Israel is attacking Lebanese sovereign territory by land, sea, and air on a daily basis (Israeli fighter planes and the buzzing of drones overhead are already part of everyday reality), the Lebanese Armed Forces have not responded. In the face of criticism from both sides, the Lebanese army issued a statement Tuesday to underline its “readiness to defend the land within the available means,” before clarifying that any action depends on “decisions and directives from political authorities.”

Meanwhile, airlines are increasingly wary of operating in the region amid growing hostilities on various fronts and while awaiting the retaliation that Israel has promised to take against Iran following the largest missile offensive launched by Tehran a week ago. Some 30 carriers have announced restrictions on the movement of their aircraft until the situation de-escalates.

Two United Nations agencies sounded the alarm Tuesday about the situation in Lebanon. The head of the World Health Organisation in the country, Ian Clarke, warned that overcrowded conditions in shelters for displaced people and the closure of hospitals due to Israeli army attacks had created a “much higher risk of disease outbreaks, such as acute watery diarrhea, hepatitis A, and a number of vaccine preventable diseases.” The World Food Programme expressed its “extraordinary concern” about Lebanon’s ability to produce enough food, with crops rotting in the fields because, with up to 20% of the population displaced, there is no one to harvest them.

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