3 weeks ago
Israel's defense minister tells ground troops in north 'We will use all of our capabilities – including you'
Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, appears to have hinted that Israel intends to mount a ground invasion of Lebanon, after he told troops in the north of the country that “We will use all of our capabilities – including you.”
Gallant said that returning Israelis to their homes in the north – about 60,000 have been forced to evacuate by repeated rocket fire from Lebanon – was “the mission of the IDF.”
He continued:
That is what we will do, and we will deploy whatever is needed – you, other forces, from the air, from the sea, and from the land.
He described the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as “a very important step, but that’s not all.”
Earlier, Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Qassem issued a defiant statement, saying that the group would shortly appoint a replacement for Nasrallah, and claimed Hezbollah was still only using a fraction of the group’s capabilities to attack Israel.
He boasted of the range of Hezbollah’s weaponry, and said that the group would continue to fight. He suggested that any other organisation subjected to the pager and walkie-talkie sabotage attack in Lebanon would have collapsed, but Hezbollah did not. The attack, which killed dozens and injured thousands of others, has been widely attributed to an Israeli attempt to target Hezbollah operatives.
While Israel continues airstrikes on Lebanon, its assault on Gaza also continues, with 12 people including a journalist reported dead in strikes on Monday. In Lebanon 1,000 people are reported to have been killed, with 6,000 more wounded, and one million people displaced from their homes by Israeli strikes.
Over the weekend Israel attacked targets in the Houthi-controlled region of Yemen, and on Monday morning there were reports of explosions in Damascus in Syria.
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Lebanese army announces soldier killed by Israeli drone strike
A Lebanese solider has been killed by an Israeli drone strike, Lebanon’s army has announced.
The News Agency reports that in a statement the army said “one of the soldiers was martyred as a result of an Israeli enemy drone targeting a motorcycle”. It said the incident happened at a checkpoint.
Israel has claimed it is targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon. So far, since Israel stepped up its aerial bombardment of Lebanon, about 1,000 people have been killed and 6,000 injured, with the government stating that one million Lebanese people have been forced to flee their homes.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that Israeli security forces have detained 45 people in the Israeli-occupied West Bank in the past 24 hours. It states that the total number of people detained by Israeli forces since 7 October now exceeds 11,000.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Britain has said that all sides should seek de-escalation and a ceasefire after Israeli strikes on Lebanon, adding that arms export licences to Israel are held under “constant review”.
A spokesperson for prime minister Keir Starmer said that Britain’s support for Israel’s right to self-defence was “ironclad” but that only a ceasefire could restore stability and security to the region.
“Clearly we stood with Israel previously. We do repeatedly say that Israel has the right to defend itself, but our focus now is on a ceasefire, and we call on all sides to show restraint, to step back from the brink and avoid any further escalation,” he said.
He was also asked about arms export licences. In response, the spokesperson said: “It’s slightly distinct, the arms export criteria specifically in legislation, but it’s kept under constant review, and the UK is continually obliged to review its position on that, and obviously we’ll continue to do so and provide any updates if anything was to change in that.”
The British government has said it is doing “everything we can” to secure seats on commercial flights as it reiterated calls for British nationals to leave Lebanon, PA Media reports.
The prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “The prime minister has been very, very clear that British nationals should leave now, particularly whilst commercial flights are still available.
“We’re doing everything we can to work with commercial airlines to maximise capacity because we want people to leave, and I understand that there have been extra Middle East Airlines flights leaving Lebanon over the weekend, another scheduled for Tuesday and we have secured seats for British nationals on those flights.”
The spokesperson added: “What we’re focused on at the moment is securing extra spaces on commercial flights for those who do want to leave and reiterating our calls for those to leave and to register their presence with us and book the first available flights. We’re also working to send a rapid deployment team to bolster the efforts of our embassy in supporting British nationals who want to leave.”
Asked why an evacuation has not started, the spokesperson said: “We’ve been clear whilst there are commercial flights available, British nationals can and, indeed, should leave.”
The spokesperson also pointed to the deployment of 700 troops, alongside Border Force and Foreign Office officials, to Cyprus to continue work on “all contingency options and plan for a range of scenarios in the region”.
Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa has said it is important to preserve Lebanon’s sovereignty and to intensify efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza, Reuters reports.
45 killed by Israeli strike in southern Lebanese town of Ain Deleb
The death toll from an Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese town of Ain Deleb has risen to 45, Reuters reports, citing Lebanon’s health ministry.
Iran: Israel 'will not go unpunished for the crimes it has committed'
Al Jazeera is carrying a fuller version of Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson’s quotes from earlier, in which he said Israel “will not go unpunished for the crimes it has committed.”
Nasser Kanaani said during a news briefing:
We do not make empty promises, we have shown in practice that we stand firmly against aggressors who intend to violate Iran’s national security, and our response will be regretful for them.
Iran will not leave any aggressive actions of the Zionist regime, which target Iran’s interests, unanswered. This regime will not go unpunished for the crimes it has committed, and Iran will take appropriate measures in response.
Israel's defense minister tells ground troops in north 'We will use all of our capabilities – including you'
Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, appears to have hinted that Israel intends to mount a ground invasion of Lebanon, after he told troops in the north of the country that “We will use all of our capabilities – including you.”
Gallant said that returning Israelis to their homes in the north – about 60,000 have been forced to evacuate by repeated rocket fire from Lebanon – was “the mission of the IDF.”
He continued:
That is what we will do, and we will deploy whatever is needed – you, other forces, from the air, from the sea, and from the land.
He described the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as “a very important step, but that’s not all.”
Earlier, Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Qassem issued a defiant statement, saying that the group would shortly appoint a replacement for Nasrallah, and claimed Hezbollah was still only using a fraction of the group’s capabilities to attack Israel.
He boasted of the range of Hezbollah’s weaponry, and said that the group would continue to fight. He suggested that any other organisation subjected to the pager and walkie-talkie sabotage attack in Lebanon would have collapsed, but Hezbollah did not. The attack, which killed dozens and injured thousands of others, has been widely attributed to an Israeli attempt to target Hezbollah operatives.
While Israel continues airstrikes on Lebanon, its assault on Gaza also continues, with 12 people including a journalist reported dead in strikes on Monday. In Lebanon 1,000 people are reported to have been killed, with 6,000 more wounded, and one million people displaced from their homes by Israeli strikes.
Over the weekend Israel attacked targets in the Houthi-controlled region of Yemen, and on Monday morning there were reports of explosions in Damascus in Syria.
Reuters reports that 12 people, including journalist Wafa Al-Udaini, have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza today. It cited Palestinian health officials.
Udaini’s death raised the number of Palestinian journalists killed in the Israeli offensive since 7 October to 174, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said.
The Committee to Protect Journalists puts the figure slightly lower, at 116 journalists and media workers killed since 7 October, which still makes it the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992.
It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
Germany’s foreign spokesperson has said that Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, via an airstrike on a residential area of Lebanon’s capital Beirut, was use of Israel’s right to self-defence.
Reuters reports the spokesperson said:
Hezbollah is of course a terrorist organization and it was obviously a meeting of the top leadership of Hezbollah, from which one can assume, even from a distance, that they were planning their further operations. So in this respect, there are also reasons to believe that the right to self-defence was exercised here.
Lebanon will hold a parliamentary session to elect a new president as soon as a ceasefire in the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel takes hold, Retuers reports the caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati said on Monday after talks with the house speaker. Lebanon has been without a president since October 2022, when the term of Michel Aoun ended.
Russia's condemns Israeli killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and 'heavy casualties' caused in residential areas
The Kremlin on Monday condemned the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli air attack last week, Reuters reports.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Nasrallah’s death had led to a serious destabilisation in the broader region. He said the bombing of residential areas in Lebanon had caused heavy casualties and would create a humanitarian catastrophe akin to the one in Gaza.
Israel’s military has issued a statement about the killing of Fatah Sharif Abu al-Amine, the leader of Hamas in Lebanon, who the organisation earlier said was killed in an airstrike.
In the statement, Israel said:
Overnight, during a joint IDF and ISA intelligence-based activity, the IAF struck and eliminated the terrorist Fatah Sharif, head of the Lebanon branch in the Hamas terrorist organisation.
Sharif was responsible for coordinating Hamas’ terror activities in Lebanon with Hezbollah operatives. He was also responsible for Hamas’ efforts in Lebanon to recruit operatives and acquire weapons.
He led the Hamas terrorist organization’s force buildup efforts in Lebanon and operated to advance Hamas’ interests in Lebanon, both politically and militarily.
The IDF and the ISA will to continue to operate against anyone who poses a threat to the civilians of the state of Israel.
In another part of his address, the Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem said that Israeli tactics against the organisation consisted of “two tracks”.
He said:
To our families and our beloved ones, I know the sacrifice is great. And the enemy works on two tracks. One to attack the military capabilities and the leaders of the resistance. The other track to hit the towns, villages and civilians, to create a rift between the resistance and the people.
The Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem did not announce replacements for any of the senior figures recently assassinated by Israel, but said the matter was in hand.
He said “in our hierarchy, we have deputies for all commanders. We have other alternatives in case the leader was killed or got injured.”
He added “We will choose a secretary general for Hezbollah sooner [rather] than later, according to the mechanism put in to select the new secretary general. And all the posts, all the vacancies will be filled.”
Defiant statement by Hezbollah deputy secretary-general says group will continue to fight
Hezbollah’s deputy secretary-general, Naim Qassem, in an address, has claimed Israel is committing massacres of civilians in Lebanon with the full support of the US, that Hezbollah ‘love martyrdom’, and that any other organisation would have collapsed in the face of the attacks launched at it by Israel, but it did not. He pledged the group would continue to fight Israel and “victory will be ours”.
He said
Israel is committing crimes and massacres in every part of Lebanon. Israel has chosen particular villages and towns and houses, and every house has the traces of the Israeli aggression. Israel attacks the civilians, the medics. Israel attacks everyone who walks in the streets and, everyone who stays in the houses. They are not fighters. The Israeli forces are killing, committing massacres and crimes against the civilians
The US administration is supporting Israel by all means, and America is a partner with Israel in everything, through the unlimited military support, all types and kinds of support, culturally, politically, economically. And if Israel thinks that determination to be brutal and to continue aggressions, then Israel is deluded. The pains are there, the sacrifices are there. But everyone must know that we love martyrdom.
He went on to say:
We have sacrificed a lot since the pager operations and the martyrdom of the leaders and the martyrdom of the leader. If this happens anywhere else, these organisations will collapse, but we did not. We are going on despite the pains and the sacrifices. We are going on because we have the hope and we trust Allah almighty to be victorious. We are the people of jihad.
He boasted of Hezbollah’s reach into Israel and ability to target places like Haifa, and said that just one missile had caused a large number of Israelis to flee their homes.
He said that Hezbollah would continue to fight, saying:
We are all there in the field, despite the loss of some leaders and Hassan Nasrallah the main target, and despite the aggressive attacks against all the civilians in Lebanon, despite the sacrifices and the actions that are aimed to create chaos in our front. We will stay there. We will be steadfast. We will continue the Islamic resistance. We will continue facing the Israeli enemy in support of Palestine and Gaza and in defence of our Lebanese people.
He suggested that Hezbollah was currently using “the minimum efforts from our side” and said that “We are strong enough, and we will turn the Israelis mad because they will never, ever be able to reach and hit and hurt our military capabilities.”
He finished by saying “We need to be patient. We need some time. But the tools and equipment are there. Allah almight asked us to prepare the tools and the equipment and inshallah, this is happening, and this will happen, and peace be upon you all.”
Please note this is a transcription of the address as it was being translated live into English.
Hezbollah’s deputy secretary-general Naim Qassem giving address
Hezbollah’s deputy secretary-general, Naim Qassem has begun an address, and said the group lost a brother and a leader when Israel assassinated Hassan Nasrallah. He has offered condolences to the families of everybody who was killed in the same strike.
