Click to see full-size image. By Al-Manar TV correspondent Ali Shoeib.
Hezbollah launched more attacks from southern Lebanon on October 22, despite facing heavy strikes by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
In three separate statements, Hezbollah said that its fighters had attacked the military sites of Ruwaisat al-Alam, al-Abad, Misqaf Aam, Bayad Blida and al-Malikiyah in the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms and Kfar Shouba Hills with anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM), artillery and rockets.
The strikes on Bayad Blida caused a massive fire that burned most of the site and its vicinity, according to footage aired by the Hezbollah-linked Al-Manar TV.
In addition, a spokesman for the IDF also admitted that a tank deployed at Mount Douf was targeted with an ATGM fired from southern Lebanon.
The IDF responded to Hezbollah’s recent attacks by shelling different parts of southern Lebanon with heavy artillery. It also announced that its combat drones carried out strikes against three ATGM-armed units and a position of the group during the day.
Hezbollah acknowledged that five of its fighters were killed while “fulfilling their Jihad duty.” The Palestinian Islamic Jihad also announced that one of its Syria’s branch fighters was killed while fighting in southern Lebanon.
Earlier in the day, Israel announced that it will be evacuating another 14 settlements close to the Lebanese border as a result of the repeated attacks by Hezbollah and its allies.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also met with IDF soldiers on the northern border and issued words of warning to Hezbollah.
“If Hezbollah decides to enter the war, it will long for the Second Lebanon War,” Netanyahu says, according to his office, referencing Israel’s 2006 war with Lebanon. “It will be making the mistake of its life. We will strike it with strength that it cannot even imagine and the significance to it and to the country of Lebanon will be devastating.”
Netanyahu told the soldiers that “I know that you lost friends, and it’s a very difficult thing, but we are in the fight of our life, a fight for our home. That’s not an exaggeration, it’s not an overstatement, that’s this war. It is kill or be killed, and they need to be killed.”
As of October 22, the clashes have claimed the lives of seven Israelis -six soldiers and one civilian- 24 fighters of Hezbollah, seven Palestinian fighters -three from the Hamas Movement and four from the Islamic Jihad- and four Lebanese civilians -two elderly men and two journalists-.
Clashes on the Lebanon front broke out following the October 7 Hamas-led surprise attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip and are expected to intensify once Israel launches its highly-touted ground offensive into the Palestinian enclave.
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