The military conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon intensified on Wednesday, as Israel announced additional troop mobilizations and sent warplanes to the north of Beirut, as Hezbollah targeted Tel Aviv for the first time.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was mobilizing two more reserve brigades for missions in the northern area and that troops must be ready for a ground manoeuvre.
“We have entered a new phase in the operation,” said Ori Gordin, the IDF commander for the north. He said Israel must “change the security situation, and we must be fully prepared for manoeuvres and actions.”
According to the military, the aim is to enable around 60,000 inhabitants of northern Israel who have fled to return to their homes.
Hezbollah sources said the militia fighters were “ready to confront any possible ground invasion.”
More back and forth
Israeli strikes on Wednesday morning killed 51 and injured some 223, the Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said at a press briefing later in the day.
The attacks struck towns and villages in the south of the country and also north of Beirut.
Overall some 600 people have been killed since the escalation began on Monday, the ministry said.
Israeli warplanes attacked the predominantly Christian areas north of Beirut for the first time since the conflict with the Shiite Hezbollah militia escalated about a year ago.
The towns of Maaysra, north of Beirut, and Joun near the coastal city of Sidon were also hit.
Maaysra, however, is the only Shiite village in the predominantly Christian area, which is about an hour’s drive north of Beirut. Joun is mainly composed of Sunni Muslims with some Christian.
The Lebanese state news agency NNA also reported numerous attacks on places in the east of the country. There was no immediate confirmation from Israel’s military.
Hezbollah tries to hit Tel Aviv
These followed a rocket attack by the Hezbollah militia, which directly attacked the Israeli coastal metropolis of Tel Aviv for the first time.
According to the Israeli army, the rocket was intercepted.
Hezbollah subsequently declared that the rocket attack was aimed at the headquarters of Israel’s foreign intelligence service Mossad in a suburb of Tel Aviv.
Mossad, it said, was responsible for the assassination of several of the militia’s leaders and for the evidently coordinated mass explosions of communication devices used by Hezbollah in Lebanon last week.
Hezbollah continued shelling Israel and said it had fired dozens of rockets at a military base in the north of the country.
Around 40 missiles were fired from Lebanon and some of them were intercepted, the Israeli military announced. One rocket fell near an assisted living facility near Safed in the north; there were no injuries.
Hezbollah hiding behind Lebanese civilians
Observers and ex-military personnel in Lebanon confirmed the Israeli military’s accusation that Hezbollah is hiding weapons in residential areas.
“[Hezbollah] has no barracks or places to store their weapons because Israel will detect them,” said former Lebanese army brigadier Wehbe Katischa, who served in southern Lebanon.
“That’s why their most important depots are located between houses and in mountainous areas near residential areas.”
The Hezbollah militia had an estimated 150,000 missiles in the region before the start of the Gaza war almost a year ago.
Israel’s military repeatedly said that the attacks in Lebanon would target the militia’s weapons depots.
Israel has long accused Hezbollah of hiding weapons in residential areas and of manufacturing rockets there. The Lebanese government has tried to refute some of these accusations.
According to Lebanese Middle East expert Riad Chawahdschi, the explosions that follow Israeli bombardments are also proof of the weapons depots in residential areas.
Videos circulated by Israel in this regard are not propaganda; there are also videos of this kind that residents release after attacks, he noted.
Thousands displaced in Lebanon
At least 90,530 people have been displaced since Monday, including nearly 40,000 in 283 shelters, the United Nations reported.
It said nearly 600 have been killed, including 50 childrean and 94 women in nearly 1,700 strikes across the country.
Humanitarian organizations urgently require at least $170 million to sustain ongoing response and respond to new needs, the UN said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called on the parties to the conflict in the Middle East to respect international humanitarian law in view of the increasing number of civilian victims in Lebanon.
The ICRC said in Geneva on Wednesday that international humanitarian law made it clear that care must be taken at all times to spare the civilian population and civilian objects when carrying out military operations.
No signs of an Iranian military intervention to date
Iran’s religious leader expressed confidence that Hezbollah shows no signs of defeat, despite the loss of high-ranking commanders in Israeli attacks. However, he made no mention of Iran taking a more active role in the ongoing conflict.
“Without doubt it was a loss for Hezbollah, but it was not a loss that would bring about its defeat,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 85, said at a veterans’ event in Tehran on Wednesday. He added that Hezbollah’s organizational and human strength was far greater.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned against underestimating Hezbollah. “It is more than capable of destroying the bases and colonies of the Israeli regime,” he wrote on the X platform.
Hezbollah has been considered Iran’s most important ally in the Middle East for many years, but observers consider it unlikely that Tehran would rush to its aid in the event of war between it and Israel.
Iran’s new government led by President Masoud Pezeshkian is struggling with a severe economic crisis and is seeking to re-establish ties with the West.
The military and political leadership in Tehran has so far only made threats against Israel and the West but has not carried out any direct attacks.
