Middle East crisis live: IDF calls on some residents of southern Lebanon to evacuate in light of attacks on Hezbollah targets | Israel

LebanonLebanon’s state news agency reported that Israel bombed several locations in southern Lebanon, killing at least one person and wounding six. Among those affected was a shepherd killed and two of his family members injured. Four people were hospitalized.

The Israeli military suggested that a ground attack in Lebanon might be necessary to secure its war aims and launched another round of large-scale attacks against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

Reuters reported that Monday’s attacks were the most geographically extensive bombing raids Israel has carried out simultaneously since the conflict with the Iran-based movement a year ago, parallel to the Gaza war.

Spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces Daniel Hagari said Israel began attacking Hezbollah positions in Lebanon after detecting an intent to fire on Israel. Asked by reporters about a possible Israeli ground attack in Lebanon, Hagari said “we will do whatever it takes” to return evacuated residents of northern Israel safely to their homes – a wartime priority for the Israeli government.

Israeli warplanes launched a heavy wave of air strikes on towns along Lebanon’s southern border and even further north on Monday morning, according to Reuters witnesses.

Welcome to our live coverage of Israel’s war in Gaza and the broader crisis in the Middle East.

The Israeli military said on Monday it was conducting extensive attacks against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon and called on villagers near areas used by the militant group in the south of the country to evacuate.

The attacks come amid the heaviest cross-border exchanges of fire in the nearly year-long conflict.

The top Israeli military spokesman, R Adm Daniel Hagarisaid on Monday that the Israel Defense Forces had begun “attacking terrorist targets throughout Lebanon” after there were “indications that Hezbollah was preparing to fire on Israeli territory.”

In a video posted on X, Hagari said: “We advise civilians in Lebanese villages located in and near buildings and areas used by Hezbollah for military purposes – such as storing weapons – to immediately leave the danger zone for their own safety.”

Monday’s attacks came a day after Iran-backed Hezbollah fired rockets deep into northern Israel. The militant group fired more than 100 rockets across a large area of ​​northern Israel early Sunday, some of which landed near the city of Haifa. The shelling came after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Friday killed at least 45 people, including one of Hezbollah’s top leaders.

Deputy Chief of Hezbollah Naim Qassem At the funeral of one of the group’s slain commanders, he said: “We have entered a new phase, the title of which is ‘The Battle of Reckoning with an Open End’.”

The exchanges of fire prompted UN Secretary-General António Guterres to warn of the risk of “turning Lebanon into a second Gaza.”

Further developments:

• Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahusaid that Hezbollah had been dealt “a series of blows that it could not have imagined” in recent days. The Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallantsaid operations would continue until evacuees on the northern Israeli side of the border could safely return. Israel’s President, Isaac Herzogsaid that Israel did not want war with Lebanon, but had a right to self-defense. Meanwhile, the Israeli Civil Defense ordered the closure of all schools in the north of the country.

• Israel’s Chief of Staff, Herzi Halevisaid the military was well prepared for the next phases of fighting that would take place in the coming days. “We will do whatever is necessary to eliminate the threats against Israel,” he said in a televised statement.

• Israeli forces raided the office of a global news broadcaster Al-Jazeera in the occupied West Bank on Sunday and issued a 45-day closure order. The Israeli military said it had closed the Ramallah office of Al Jazeera television for inciting “terrorism,” a charge the broadcaster vehemently denies.

• At least 41,431 Palestinians have been killed and 95,818 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, the Health Ministry of the Hamas-controlled territory said.

• At least seven people were killed in an Israeli air strike. Kafr Qasem School in the Beach camp in Gaza City, which housed displaced families, Palestinian health officials said.

• Iran’s Revolutionary Guards According to intelligence sources, 12 people were arrested for collaborating with Israel and planning attacks against Iranian security. The arrests took place in six different Iranian provinces.

• Israel is considering a plan to use siege tactics against Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip. Benjamin Netanyahu was quoted by several Israeli media outlets. The Prime Minister’s Office did not respond to a request for comment. Sunday’s reports cited unnamed sources at a closed parliamentary committee meeting.