Hezbollah targets Israeli troops on Lebanese border, sirens sound in northern Israel

JERUSALEM: Hezbollah militants targeted Israeli soldiers near the Lebanese border village of Labbouneh with artillery shells and rockets on Wednesday (Oct 9), the group said, a day after Israel said it had killed two successors to its slain leader.
The Iran-backed movement, which has been launching rockets against Israel for a year in parallel with the Gaza war and is now fighting it in ground clashes, said it had pushed the troops back.
The escalation in Lebanon, after a year of war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, has raised fears of a wider Middle East conflict that could suck in Iran and Israel’s superpower ally the United States.
The Israeli military said three of its soldiers were severely injured on Tuesday and Wednesday during combat in southern Lebanon. Sirens sounded in northern Israel on Wednesday morning after Israel renewed bombing of Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, overnight.
The conflict in Lebanon has escalated dramatically in recent weeks as Israel has carried out a string of assassinations of top Hezbollah leaders and launched ground operations into southern Lebanon that expanded further this week.
Hezbollah is the most formidably armed of Iran’s proxy forces across the Middle East and has been acting in support of Palestinian militants fighting Israel in Gaza.
Israel has said that troops from as many as four divisions have operated inside Lebanon since the first announcement of the ground operation on Oct 1, but it has not confirmed that they have established a permanent presence there.
Hezbollah says it has clashed with Israeli troops on Lebanese soil, including with artillery fire and rockets, but that it has managed to push the troops back and prevent them from holding territory in Lebanon.
Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon has killed more than 2,100 people, most of them in the last two weeks, and forced 1.2 million people from their homes. Israel says it has no choice but to strike Hezbollah so that tens of thousands of Israelis can return to homes they fled under Hezbollah rocket fire.
Burn victims from Israeli strikes are being treated at the burn unit in Beirut’s Geitaoui hospital, the only one of its kind in the country. Reuters journalists saw nurses gently change the gauze on patients, some of whom were wrapped neck down because of the severity of burns.
Mahmoud Dhaiwi, a Lebanese soldier, told Reuters he was off duty and heading to the beach when his car was hit by an Israeli strike. His whole body has been burned. Since then he hasn’t been able to sleep and has suffered from crippling anxiety.
Overnight, Israel again bombed Beirut’s southern suburbs and said it had killed a figure responsible for budgeting and logistics for Hezbollah, Suhail Hussein Husseini.
 
The densely-populated and thriving suburban district, has been abandoned by many residents following Israeli evacuation warnings. Some Lebanese draw parallels between the warnings and those seen in Gaza over the last year, prompting fears that Beirut could face the same scale of destruction.
US President Joe Biden is expected to speak on Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a person familiar with the matter, with talks set to include discussion of any plans to strike Iran.
The Middle East has been on edge awaiting Israel’s response to a missile attack from Iran last week that Tehran carried out in retaliation for Israel’s military escalation in Lebanon. The only fatality from the Iranian attack was a Palestinian hit by debris that fell in the West Bank.
Israel’s retaliation will be a key subject of the call, with Washington hoping to weigh in on whether the response is appropriate, a separate person briefed on the discussions said.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Biden has said he would think about alternatives to striking Iranian oil fields if he were in Israel’s shoes. That option could drive up global oil prices. Last week, he also said he would not support Israel striking Iranian nuclear sites.
Tehran has told Gulf Arab states it would be “unacceptable” if they allowed use of their airspace or military bases against Iran and warned that any such move would draw a response, a senior Iranian official said.
Netanyahu said on Tuesday Israeli airstrikes had killed two successors to Hezbollah’s slain leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, himself killed in an Israeli air attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sep 27.
Netanyahu did not name them, but Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Hashem Safieddine, the man expected to succeed Nasrallah, had probably been “eliminated”. It was not clear who was the other figure cited by Netanyahu.
Safieddine has not been heard from since a huge Israeli airstrike late last week. Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said Israel knew that Safieddine was in Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters when fighter jets bombed it last week. Safieddine’s status was “being checked and when we know, we will inform the public”.
Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Qassem said on Tuesday the group’s capabilities were intact despite the “painful blows” inflicted by Israel’s mounting military pressure.
Qassem said the group endorsed efforts by Lebanon’s speaker of parliament to secure a ceasefire. He conspicuously left out an oft-repeated condition of the group – that a separate ceasefire would have to be reached in Gaza before Hezbollah would agree to a truce. Netanyahu’s office declined to comment on Qassem’s remarks.
US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told a briefing in Washington that Hezbollah had “changed their tune and want a ceasefire” because the group is “on the back foot and is getting battered” on the battlefield.