Israel warned Monday it would use all its might to hit Hezbollah even after the killing of its leader, as the Iran-backed group said its fighters were ready to face any ground offensive in Lebanon.
Israel launched earlier this month a wave of deadly air strikes on Hezbollah strongholds across Lebanon, and on Friday dealt the group a seismic blow with the killing of leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut.
Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem, in a first televised address since the massive Friday strike, said the armed movement was “ready if Israel decides to enter by land. The resistance forces are ready for any ground confrontation.”
In northern Israel, near the Lebanese border, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said: “We will use all the means that may be required… from the air, from the sea, and on land.”
He said the killing of Nasrallah “is an important step, but it is not the final one.”
To allow displaced residents of the border area to return safely home, “we will employ all of our capabilities, and this includes you,” Gallant told troops.
Hezbollah began low-intensity strikes on Israeli troops a day after its Palestinian ally Hamas staged its unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 which triggered war in the Gaza Strip.
The border clashes have rapidly escalated this month, leaving people across the region fearful of even more violence to come.
The Israeli strikes continued on Monday, with one of them killing a soldier in south Lebanon according to a military statement — the first death among Lebanese troops in the current escalation.
Israel said earlier this month that it was shifting its focus from Gaza to securing its northern border, and has not ruled out a ground offensive in order to achieve its goals.
Israel’s strikes on Lebanon have killed hundreds of people over the past week and forced hundreds of thousands more to flee their homes.
Hezbollah and other groups launched rockets, drones and some missiles at Israel over the same period, causing some injuries but no deaths.
– ‘Everyone is afraid’ –
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused arch-foe Iran, which backs Hamas, Hezbollah and other armed groups, of plunging “our region deeper… into war”.
“There is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach,” Netanyahu warned.
Iran has said Nasrallah’s killing would bring about Israel’s “destruction”, though the foreign ministry said Monday that Tehran would not deploy any fighters to confront Israel.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati called for a ceasefire based on a recent US-French proposal, urging “an end to the Israeli aggression against Lebanon”.
US President Joe Biden, whose country is Israel’s main weapons supplier, on Monday indicated he opposes an Israeli ground operation.
“We should have a ceasefire now,” he said.
Most of Israel’s strikes have targeted Hezbollah strongholds in eastern and southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut, the group’s main bastion.
On Monday, an Israeli strike hit a building in central Beirut, with an armed Palestinian group saying it had killed three of its members.
The strike, the first in the city centre in years, sparked panic, with 41-year-old resident Mohammed al-Hoss saying “the kids were in shock” after his house was damaged.
“Our country is in a wretched state. They (Israel) finished with Gaza and they have come to Lebanon,” he said.
Another resident, 42-year-old Kahier Bannout, said central Beirut was “supposed to be a safe area — not a war zone”.
“Everyone is afraid.”
In Israel’s north, too, some feared a wider war.
“Nasrallah was responsible for the deaths of many Israelis, so it is good news” that he was killed, said Matan Sofer, 24, in the town of Rosh Pina.
But “we don’t know when this is going to end,” he said of the violence.
Lebanon’s health ministry said six rescuers affiliated with Hezbollah were killed in an Israeli strike Monday.
Hamas said its leader in Lebanon, Fatah Sharif Abu al-Amine, was killed along with his wife and two children in a strike on Al-Bass refugee camp in south Lebanon. The Israeli military confirmed it had “eliminated” Sharif.
– ‘There is little time’ –
Lebanon’s Health Minister Firass Abiad said more than 1,000 people have been killed since September 17.
UN refugee agency chief Filippo Grandi said “well over 200,000 people are displaced inside Lebanon”, while more than 100,000 have fled to neighbouring Syria.
Israel said it carried out strikes on Sunday targeting Iran-backed Huthis in Yemen, which rebel media on Monday said killed six people, after they launched a missile at Israel.
World leaders have called for a de-escalation, while some governments have urged their citizens — and in some cases, embassy staff or their families — to leave Lebanon.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, the first high-level diplomat to visit Beirut since the Israeli strikes intensified, said on Monday his government sought “an immediate halt” in the violence.
“There is still hope” for a ceasefire, he said, “but there is little time”.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said diplomacy was the best path forward for the region.
Washington “will continue to work… to advance a diplomatic resolution” for the Israel-Lebanon border, and “to secure a ceasefire deal in Gaza” that would free Israeli hostages and ease Palestinians’ “suffering”, he said.
In Gaza, AFP journalists said the number of Israeli air strikes has dropped significantly in recent days.
A UN Satellite Centre assessment issued Monday said “two-thirds of the total structures in the Gaza Strip have sustained damage” in nearly a year of war.
Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,615 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN has described the figures as reliable.
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