Israel Launches Ground Invasion Of Lebanon: Operation Northern Arrows

Update(1908ET): Israel has named the new cross-border offensive "Operation Northern Arrows". Below is an early description by the IDF as posted to Telegram and other government channels [emphasis ZH]:

IDF troops have begun limited, localized and targeted raids against Hezbollah terror targets in the border area of southern Lebanon

In accordance with the decision of the political echelon, a few hours ago, the IDF began limited, localized, and targeted ground raids based on precise intelligence against Hezbollah terrorist targets and infrastructure in southern Lebanon. These targets are located in villages close to the border and pose an immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel.

The IDF is operating according to a methodical plan set out by the General Staff and the Northern Command which IDF soldiers have trained and prepared for in recent months.

The Israeli Air Force and IDF Artillery are supporting the ground forces with precise strikes on military targets in the area.

Some Lebanese accounts have claimed that Hezbollah has already killed and wounded some invading Israeli soldiers, but these reports will remain hard to verify within the opening hours of the campaign and amid the fog of war.

Heavy strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs during the night hours (local):

New strike on Damascus:

* * *

Update(1630ET): The Israeli ground invasion of Lebanon has begun, with various regional news correspondents saying IDF tanks have been spotted breaching areas earlier deemed 'closed military zones'.

"Israeli forces have launched limited incursions in Lebanon, the United States said, as Israel vowed to keep fighting Hezbollah and sealed part of the border after killing the Iran-backed militants' leader," AFP reports.

Thus a ground war has begun in Lebanon a mere month before the US presidential election. Meanwhile neither President Biden nor VP Kamala Harris have had much to say. Quite the opposite: they might prefer to hide from the media. 

There are meanwhile reports that it was a US-provided 2,000 pound bomb which killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last Friday. Israel's use of the US-supplied "bunker busters" has been described Monday as follows:

A video published by the Israeli military on Saturday showed jets it said were used to carry out the attack carrying at least 15 2,000-pound bombs, including the US-made BLU-109, according to Trevor Ball, a former senior explosive ordnance technician for the US Army who reviewed the footage for CNN.

Biden has meekly called for ceasefire, while simultaneously backing the high level assassination. 

Intense airstrikes are now once again hitting the Lebanese capital...

* * *

Israel has been busy over the weekend striking multiple fronts. Not only has it expanded airstrikes on Beirut in the wake of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's Friday death, but it is attacking Yemen and Syria as well.

Starting late last week into Saturday, Yemen's Iran-linked Houthis announced the launch of several ballistic missiles toward Tel Aviv, which Israel's military said were intercepted. And on Friday, in an incident which went underreported (given headlines were focused heavily on Beirut events), three US warships in the Red Sea came under simultaneous rocket attacks from the Houthis.

"The Houthi said they had targeted three U.S. warships which media reports tonight are identifying as the guided missile destroyers USS Spruance and USS Stockdale and the littoral combat ship USS Indianapolis. They were reported to have been north of the Bab el-Mandeb at the time," The Maritime Executive reported.

"U.S. officials are confirming that warships in the Red Sea were targeted with possibly the largest barrage since the conflict began with the Houthis in Yemen nearly 10 months ago," the publication added.

On Sunday Israeli jets had the assistance of US military intelligence as they conducted a massive airstrike on Yemen's key port of Hodeidah. It happened in the early evening local time. Axios reports that "sensitive" Houthis facilities were on the target list.

Yemen's Health Ministry in the aftermath announced that at least four people were killed and 40 others injured in the Israeli raid, which left massive plumes of smoke over the area. Videos show a huge fire engulfing the port.

Israeli media has confirmed that it was the biggest Israeli strike on Yemen since the conflict began in the wake of Oct.7 of last year. "Dozens of Israeli aircraft, including F-15I fighter planes, participated in the operation, striking 1,800 kilometers from Israeli territory after the Houthis fired three ballistic missiles on the Tel Aviv and central Israel areas in recent weeks, including one on Saturday," Jerusalem Post details.

During Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Friday United Nations speech, the Israeli leader said his country is fighting a war on seven fronts. He brought props, as has been his pattern at major UN speeches:

The Israeli leader explained “the blessing” was establishing a “landbridge” from India to Israel. The blessing requires Saudi Arabia to enter the Abraham Accords and normalize ties with Israel. Netanyahu claimed that would have happened, but the October 7 Hamas attack prevented the deal.

In the map titled “the curse,” five countries were represented in black: Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon. The Israeli leader claimed that Tehran was working to eliminate Tel Aviv using its allies in the region. Netanyahu presented the conflict as a battle between forces of civilization against barbarism.

He is now targeting the very countries he listed in the speech. According to more details of the Hodeidah attack from Yemeni sources:

In a statement, the army said “dozens of air force aircraft” struck power plants and sea port facilities at the Ras Isa and Hodeidah ports. The attacks killed at least four people - including a port worker and three electrical engineers - and wounded 30 others, according to Yemen’s ministry of health.

Also on Sunday, and also largely underreported in Western media, there was another Israeli raid on Syria, which reportedly targeted a base with 'pro-Iranian' assets. It happened on the outskirts of the capital Damascus. "At least seven pro-Iran militants were injured in an Israeli strike in the countryside of Damascus, near the Syria-Lebanon border, a war monitor reported on Monday, amid soaring regional tensions against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war," regional source Rudaw reports.

"Seven elements, most of them non-Syrians, were injured in an Israeli airstrike on a border crossing on the Syrian-Lebanese border in Rif Dimashq from the Syrian side," the report said. A similar raid occurred on Friday, as Israel was bombing Beirut. Syrian state SANA said the Friday aggression killed five Syrian soldiers.

Meanwhile on Monday Israel has expanded its strikes in Lebanon to include targeted attacks on central Beirut, which is a first since the 2006 war. The apparent targets included three senior figures in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Subsequently the leftist group which conducted airline hijackings in the 1970s said its officials Mohammed Abdel Aal, Emad Odeh, and Abdel Rahman Abdel Aal were killed in Beirut's Cola district.

Aftermath of the airstrike on an apartment building in central Beirut:

The Guardian described of the attack, "Initial footage from the scene showed two storeys of an apartment building completely blown out, and onlookers running towards the building. Two bodies could be seen lying on the street on top of a car outside the building, seemingly ejected by the force of the blast."

As if all this weren't a chaotic enough powder keg ready to explode further, Iran-backed paramilitaries in Iraq are now ramping up attempts to directly attack Israel, with a fresh drone operation against Israel's port city of Haifa:

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq said in a statement today that it attacked four Israeli targets in response to Israel's attacks on Lebanon and Gaza.

It said that it attacked two “vital” targets in the Israeli port city of Haifa using drones, as well as two other unspecified targets.

Amid what's clearly a rapid escalation on several fronts in the Middle East, the US Commander-in-Chief doesn't seem to know what's going on...

This despite Yemen and the Red Sea being scene of what one US military commander previously called America's most serious and intense naval combat going back to WW2.

In northern Israel, the IDF continues building up forces along the border with Lebanon, as well as in the Golan region, ahead of a potential ground invasion. There have also reportedly been repeat incursions into Lebanese territory by Israeli special forces troops. Hezbollah has continued sporadic missile fire into northern Israel over the past days as well, but the big expected retaliation for Nasrallah's killing has yet to come on any large scale.

Netanyahu on Monday issued a new warning: "There is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach.  There is nowhere we will not go to protect our people and protect our country," he said, describing that Israel is in "a war for our very existence."

ZH

Tags:

Post a Comment

Previous Post Next Post
Free mail
Free mail
Share to other apps
Copy Post Link

Contact Form