Israel steps up Lebanon strikes as Netanyahu escalates offensive

BEIRUT: The Israeli army intensified strikes in southern Lebanon on Monday, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the military to escalate its offensive in Lebanon in an effort to “crush” Hizbollah.

The airstrikes come as the US and Iran seek to finalise the terms of an agreement to end the Middle East conflict, which could include the Lebanon front, where Israel and Hizbollah have waged war since March 2.

Despite a ceasefire that came into effect on April 17, Israel and Iran-backed Hizbollah have continued to exchange fire on a near-daily basis.

“I have ordered an even greater acceleration of our operations,” Netanyahu said in a video statement posted on his Telegram channel.

“It is true that they are attacking us with drones, including fibre-optic drones, but we have teams working on countermeasures and we will solve this issue… We will intensify our blows, increase our firepower, and we will crush them.”

Following the call for escalation, an AFP correspondent saw residents fleeing the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hizbollah stronghold.

The Israeli air force carried out successive strikes in the Bekaa valley in eastern Lebanon on Monday evening, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA).

Dozens of Israeli strikes earlier targeted several towns and villages in southern Lebanon in the early hours, killing three people in two cars and on a motorcycle, NNA reported.

Israeli airstrikes then targeted several towns near the ancient city of Tyre, according to the state-run agency.

Those strikes came after Israel issued evacuation orders for 10 villages, accusing Hizbollah of breaching the truce.

“In light of Hizbollah’s violation of the ceasefire agreement, the Israel Defense Forces are compelled to operate against it with force,” the military’s Arabic-language spokesman Colonel Avichay Adraee said in a social media post, listing the names of the villages.

Hizbollah, a Lebanese Iran-backed movement, has regularly launched drone attacks against Israeli forces inside Lebanese territory and across the border, including several on Monday.

Later on Monday, Adraee issued another evacuation warning directed at residents of a building in Rashidieh and two buildings in Burj al-Shamali, near the city of Tyre.

According to Lebanese authorities, Israeli strikes since early March have killed more than 3,100 people.

The Israeli military also announced on Monday that a soldier had been killed the previous day in southern Lebanon.

That brings the number of Israeli soldiers killed since the outbreak of hostilities with Hizbollah to 23. One civilian contractor has also been killed.

‘Buildings must fall’

Two far-right ministers called for an expansion of Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon.

“There is an urgent need to put an end to the threat posed by Hizbollah’s explosive drones,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who lives in an occupied West Bank settlement, said on Telegram.

“For every explosive drone strike, 10 buildings must fall in Beirut.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, another figurehead of the Israeli far-right, called for a “return to intensive warfare” and for “taking control” of the Zahrani River, located further north than the Litani River.

The Israeli army, which controls a strip of land approximately 10 kilometres (six miles) deep in Lebanese territory, has designated the Litani River as the boundary of the area to be cleared of Hizbollah fighters.

On Monday, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun defended his decision to hold talks with Israel, adding that his demand for a complete Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon was “non-negotiable.”

Lebanon and Israel, which do not have diplomatic relations, are holding another round of negotiations in Washington on June 2 and 3, preceded by a meeting of military officials from both countries at the Pentagon on May 29.

Hizbollah leader Naim Qassem reiterated his opposition to direct negotiations between Lebanon and Israel on Sunday evening and repeated his refusal for his movement to disarm.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned his remarks, accusing him of calling for the “overthrow” of the Lebanese government and of wanting to “plunge Lebanon back into chaos.”

In response to Rubio, Hizbollah MP Ali Ammar called on the US administration on Monday to stop “interfering in Lebanese affairs and destabilising the country.”

© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd

المصدر: New Straits Times