Illustrative image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced on October 2 that another division was deployed to southern Lebanon for ground operations against Hezbollah.
The 36th Division “Ga’ash” will be joining the 98th Division, which began conducting ground operations in Lebanon earlier this week.
The IDF has described the ground operations in southern Lebanon, which began on September 30, as “limited, localized, and targeted raids,” with the goal of demolishing Hezbollah’s infrastructure in the border area. No Israel advance has been reported so far.
Also on October 2, the IDF issued an order to Lebanese civilians in two dozen towns in southern Lebanon to evacuate immediately.
“Hezbollah’s activity forces the IDF to act against it. The IDF does not wish to harm you,” Colonel Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, says in a statement on X. “For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately. Anyone who is near Hezbollah operatives, their facilities or their weapons, puts themselves at risk.”
Col. Adraee also said that any house used by Hezbollah for military purposes is a target, calling on Lebanese civilians to head north.
“Attention, do not move south! Any movement south could endanger your life,” the spokesman added, noting that the IDF will update the civilians when they can return.
A day earlier, the IDF issued similar orders to 28 other towns in southern Lebanon. The military also warned against any movement of vehicles from the north of the Litani River to the south of it.
Since the morning of October, Hezbollah has fired more than a hundred rockets at northern Israel, targeting mainly gatherings of the IDF along the Lebanese border. The group also announced that its fighters clashed with an Israeli unit close to the town of Odaisseh. Initial reports by Hebrew media suggest that some 20 troops were killed or wounded.
The clashes on the Lebanese-Israeli border first broke out after the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, with Hezbollah and its allies launching near-daily attacks in support of the Palestinian enclave. Israel escalated its attacks on Lebanon starting from September 17 and on September 27 it assassinated the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Hassan Nassrallah. The IDF officially announced the launch of a ground operation in Lebanon three days later.
All in all, the confrontation between Hezbollah and IDF has so far resulted in 26 civilian deaths in Israel and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights as well as the deaths of at least 22 soldiers and security officers. On the Lebanese side, at least 1,642 people have been killed, including more than 500 members of Hezbollah.
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