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Israel expanded its targets in its war with Hizbollah fighters in Lebanon yesterday, killing at least 21 people in an airstrike in the north, health officials said, while millions of Israelis took shelter from projectiles fired back across the border.
So far the main focus of Israel’s military operations in Lebanon has been in the south, the Bekaa Valley in the east and the suburbs of Beirut.
The strike in the Christian-majority town of Aitou hit a house that had been rented to displaced families, the town’s mayor Joseph Trad said. In addition to the deaths, eight people were injured, the Lebanese health ministry said.
Rescue workers at the site of the strike searched through piles of rubble yesterday, where burned vehicles and trees could be seen strewn across the ground.
Israel ordered residents of 25 villages in southern Lebanon to evacuate to areas north of the Awali River, which flows some 60km north of the Israeli frontier.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visiting a military base in central Israel where four soldiers were killed on Sunday by a Hizbollah drone strike, said Israel would continue to attack the Iran-backed movement “without mercy, everywhere in Lebanon – including Beirut”.
At the Masnaa border crossing with Syria, couple Jalal Ferhat and Amal Tefayeli and their five children were among those offloading belongings from buses, hoping to leave Lebanon.
“There are strikes in our neighbourhood and destruction, and they (Israeli forces) hit near my house,” said Ferhat, 40, from Baalbek, a Hizbollah stronghold in eastern Lebanon. “I have children, you can’t just stay where you are.”
In central Israel, residents rushed to shelters as sirens sounded. The military said three projectiles that had crossed from Lebanon had been intercepted. No injuries were reported.
The conflict between Israel and Hizbollah resumed a year ago when the fighter group began firing rockets at Israel in support of Palestinian fighters Hamas at the start of the Gaza war, and has escalated sharply in recent weeks.
Israeli strikes have killed at least 2,309 people in Lebanon over the last year, the Lebanese government said in its daily update. The majority have been killed since late September when Israel expanded its military campaign. The toll does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The Israeli military said it had killed Muhammad Kamel Naim, commander of the anti-tank missile unit of Hizbollah’s elite Radwan Force, in a strike in the Nabatieh area of south Lebanon.
As Israel has pushed its forces through south Lebanon in an attempt to wipe out Hizbollah and its military infrastructure, tensions have increased between Israel and the UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL.
The UN said Israeli tanks had burst into its base on Sunday.
Netanyahu yesterday rejected accusations that Israeli troops had deliberately harmed UNIFIL peacekeepers as “completely false” and repeated a call for them to withdraw from combat zones close to the border with Israel.
He said Hizbollah uses UNIFIL positions as cover for attacks that have killed Israelis, including on Sunday, when a drone attack on a military base killed four soldiers.
Netanyahu said he regretted any harm to UNIFIL personnel but added that the best way to ensure their safety was “to heed Israel’s request and to temporarily get out of harm’s way.”
The Israeli military took foreign journalists into southern Lebanon on Sunday and showed them a Hizbollah tunnel shaft that was less than 200 metres away from a UNIFIL position, as well as weapon stashes that the troops found.
Since announcing its ground operation near the border, the Israeli military says that it has destroyed dozens of Hizbollah tunnel shafts, rocket launchers and command posts.
Israeli attacks on UNIFIL are contrary to international humanitarian law and must stop at once, Italy, Britain, France and Germany said yesterday.
In a joint statement, the four nations reaffirmed “the essential stabilising role” played by UNIFIL in southern Lebanon, adding that Israel and other parties had to ensure the safety of the peacekeepers at all times.
The UNIFIL mission, which includes hundreds of European soldiers, has said it has repeatedly come under attack from the Israeli military in recent days.
The Middle East remains on high alert for Israel to retaliate against Iran for an October 1 barrage of missiles launched in response to Israel’s assaults on Lebanon.
The Pentagon said it would send US troops to Israel along with an advanced US anti-missile system.
Yesterday, the US embassy in Lebanon strongly encouraged its citizens to leave immediately, warning that additional flights laid on by the government to help US citizens leave since September 27 would not continue indefinitely.
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