Lebanon.. Hezbollah thwarts an incursion into Labbouneh and Israel announces the occupation of Maroun al-Ras

Lebanese Hezbollah said it had bombed an Israeli force that had advanced towards the border area of Labouneh, achieving confirmed hits and forcing it to retreat. In contrast, Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen announced that the Israeli army had occupied the Maroun al-Ras area and destroyed houses from which Hezbollah had launched rockets towards Israel.

Today, Tuesday, the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation published video footage showing Israeli soldiers raising the Israeli flag in the town of Maroun al-Ras in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah confirmed, in a statement, that its fighters had spotted an Israeli enemy force that had infiltrated from behind the UNIFIL position and dealt with it with appropriate weapons, forcing it to withdraw behind the border strip.

The party added, in a separate statement, that it bombed a gathering of Israeli occupation forces in the settlement of Matula with rockets, and also targeted a gathering of Israeli enemy forces in the settlement of Yaara with a squadron of suicide drones.

Hezbollah also announced that it had carried out 3,194 military operations against Israeli sites and targets since October 8 until today, noting that its military operations had led to the evacuation of 100 settlements and the displacement of more than 300,000 Israelis.

broad attack

In contrast, Israeli media reported that sirens were sounding in Yiftach in the Upper Galilee. Israeli Channel 12 said that about 25 rockets were detected launched from Lebanon towards the Upper Galilee and some of them were intercepted.

The Israeli army also announced that it had detected the launch of 10 missiles from Lebanon towards Ras al-Naqoura, noting that air defenses intercepted some of them.

In turn, the Israeli Home Front Command decided to tighten restrictions on civilians in the Haifa area, and to stop teaching tomorrow in the Krayot cities, following the extensive bombing by Hezbollah.

This afternoon, the occupation army announced that 105 rockets were launched from southern Lebanon towards northern Israel, in two waves, especially the city of Haifa and several settlements in the Galilee. This came minutes after a speech given by Naim Qassem, the deputy secretary-general of Hezbollah.

Israeli Channel 12 confirmed that 12 people were slightly injured in Haifa and the Krayot after a missile attack.

Hezbollah bombed the city of Haifa and its bay with dozens of missiles from areas where the Israeli army is conducting ground operations, and air raid sirens sounded in many areas.

material damage

The rockets also caused extensive material damage to several vehicles and buildings in Kiryat Motzkin and Kiryat Yam, in Haifa Bay, and in Kfar Masarik, south of Acre.

This is the largest missile attack from southern Lebanon since the recent escalation; the city of Tiberias and its surroundings were also exposed today to two missile salvos from Lebanon.

For his part, the mayor of Haifa spoke about a building in the Haifa Bay area being directly hit, and said that he had requested the evacuation of the chemical factories in Haifa Bay but had not received any response.

The Kiryat Shmona municipality said that the evacuation of the town's residents will continue until at least the end of next December, as a result of the ongoing rocket fire from southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah said it bombed the cities of Haifa and Kiryat, northern Israel, with a large barrage of rockets, in response to the targeting of civilians in the southern suburbs of Beirut. The party confirmed that it targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers at the Baghdadi site with a swarm of attack drones.

Military reinforcements

In contrast, the army said it killed Suheil Hussein Husseini, Hezbollah's chief of staff, in a raid on an area in Beirut yesterday.

The Israeli army announced that the "146th" division began today carrying out specific operations against Hezbollah targets and infrastructure.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army announced that a soldier was seriously injured during battles in southern Lebanon; it also announced the summoning of an additional military division to join the ground operation in Lebanon.

Israeli army data indicated that 48 soldiers were injured in Gaza and Lebanon during the past 24 hours.

Since September 23, Israel has been waging a war on Lebanon, through unprecedentedly intense and bloody air strikes that even targeted the capital Beirut, in addition to a ground incursion that it began in the south, ignoring international warnings and UN resolutions.

These raids resulted, until Monday afternoon, in 1,251 deaths and 3,618 injuries, including a large number of women and children, and more than 1.2 million displaced people, according to official Lebanese data.

In return, Hezbollah responds to the aggression by launching missiles, drones and artillery shells targeting military sites and settlements across Israel.

Source: Al Jazeera + Agencies