Israel has announced it is carrying out “limited” and “targeted” ground raids on Hezbollah in Lebanon in a major escalation of a conflict in the Middle East that now threatens to suck in the US and Iran.
The Israeli military said the operations in Lebanon began on Monday night and involved paratroops and commandos from the elite 98th division, which was deployed to the northern front two weeks ago from Gaza where they had been fighting for months.
It said its air force and artillery supported ground troops engaged in “limited, localised, and targeted ground raids” against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon villages that posed “an immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel”.
Local residents in the Lebanese border town of Aita al-Shaab reported heavy shelling and the sound of helicopters and drones overhead. Flares were repeatedly launched over the Lebanese border town of Rmeish, lighting up the night sky.
Iran-backed Hezbollah later said it had targeted Israeli troops across the border in Metula twice with artillery and rocket fire.
An Israeli strike in Lebanon early on Tuesday targeted Mounir Maqdah, commander of the Lebanese branch of the Palestinian Fatah movement's military wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, according to two Palestinian security officials. His fate was unknown.
Meanwhile the UK Government has chartered a flight out of Lebanon Britons wanting to leave.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy described the situation in Lebanon as “volatile” and with the “potential to deteriorate quickly” as the flight, due to leave Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport on Wednesday, was confirmed.
Earlier, Mr Lammy reiterated calls for Britons in Lebanon to leave and said the Government will do “all that we can” to assist people in fleeing.
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