Days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that they will continue degrading Hezbollah until all their objectives are met, the Israeli soldiers have started ‘targeted ground raids’ along with airstrikes in Lebanon.
However, amid increasing Middle East conflict, Hezbollah has vowed to fight on following the death of its long-time chief Hassan Nasrallah.
Daniel Hagari, a spokesperson of Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on Tuesday released a video statement and said that troops were operating against Hezbollah to ensure that Israeli citizens could return to their homes in the north.
Israeli army has also announced it had carried out dozens of ground raids into southern Lebanon going back nearly a year.
“The IDF continues to fight and act to achieve the goals of the war, and does everything necessary to protect the citizens of the State of Israel and return the residents of the north to their homes safely,” added Hagari in a post on X.
The militant group denied Israeli troops had entered Lebanon. According to AP, Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif dismissed what he said were “false claims” of an Israeli incursion.
Hezbollah is ready for “direct confrontation with enemy forces that dare to or try to enter Lebanon, said Afif in its a statement.
Meanwhile, Israeli military has warned nearly two dozen Lebanese border communities to evacuate. “You must immediately head north of the Awali River to save yourselves, and leave your houses immediately,” said the statement posted by the Israeli military on the platform X.
AP reported that Israel has advised people to evacuate to the north of the Awali River, some 60 kilometers (36 miles) from the border and much farther than the Litani River, which marks the northern edge of a U.N.-declared zone that was intended to serve as a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah after their 2006 war.
Condemning Israel's ground operation in Lebanon, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has urged the United Nations and other international organisations to stop Israel without "wasting any more time".
"Whatever it does, Israel will be stopped sooner or later," Erdogan told the Turkish parliament at the opening of the legislative year.
“All state and international organisations, especially the UN, must stop Israel without wasting any more time. The ‘terror and genocide’ Israel has carried out in Gaza has reached Lebanon and warned if not stopped, the Israeli leadership would set its sights on Turkey,” AFP quoted Erdogan as saying.
Urging immediate withdrawal of troops from southern Lebanon and engage in a real search for peaceful ways to resolve the Middle East conflict.
"We express our solidarity with the leadership and people of friendly Lebanon, which has been subjected to armed aggression," Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
Warning Israel against ‘large-scale ground invasion’, the United Nations said that it would only result in greater suffering.
"With armed violence between Israel and Hezbollah boiling over, the consequences for civilians have already been terrible," AFP quoted Liz Throssell, spokeswoman for the UN rights office, as saying.
With the conflict escalating and taking in view the current situation, Lufthansa has extended its suspension of flights to Beirut and Tel Aviv.
German airline group has said that flights to Beirut will now be suspended up to and including November 30. Tel Aviv flights will be cancelled until October 31. Tehran flights will remain cancelled until October 14.
