Hezbollah said Tuesday morning it fired two salvos of rockets toward northern Israel while Israeli airstrikes overnight damaged a building housing Hezbollah’s TV and radio stations. Beirut’s southern suburbs were subjected to a series of strikes in the early afternoon on Tuesday that came without warning, and the Israeli military later said it targeted Hezbollah officials.
The Israeli military’s Arabic spokesman, Avichay Adraee, issued a warning for residents of more than 80 villages and towns asking them to leave, adding that people should not return to these areas until further notice.A senior Hezbollah official said that after more than a year of abiding by a ceasefire as Israel’s strikes continued on Lebanon, the group’s patience has ended, leaving it with no option “but to return to resistance” and fight an open war with Israel.
“The Zionist enemy wanted an open war, which it has not stopped since the ceasefire agreement,” Mohamoud Komati said “So let it be an open war.”
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun told the ambassadors of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the U.S., France and Egypt Tuesday that Hezbollah has been firing rockets from areas north of the Litani river. The Lebanese government says it has disarmed Hezbollah south of the river, along the border with Israel, and Lebanese troops are in full control of the area between the river and the border.Shortly before Aoun spoke, the Israeli military said it has sent additional troops into southern Lebanon and took new positions on several strategic points close to the border, while Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the Lebanese army was evacuating some of its positions along the border.
Adraee, the spokesman, posted on X that the troops’ move inside Lebanon is part of efforts to bolster the forward defense system and create an addition layer of security.
A Lebanese military official confirmed to The Associated Press that Israeli troops moved into several areas in Lebanon, adding that the Lebanese army is “repositioning” in the area.
The U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, said its peacekeepers observed Israeli forces crossing into Lebanon in several areas Tuesday morning “before returning south of the Blue Line,” referring to the border between the two countries.
Israel launched a ground invasion of Lebanon in October 2024 during its last war with Hezbollah. It withdrew from most of southern Lebanon after a U.S.-brokered ceasefire halted the fighting in November 2024 but has continued to occupy five points on the Lebanese side of the border since then.
After the ceasefire, Israel continued to carry out near-daily strikes, primarily in southern Lebanon, saying that Hezbollah has been trying to rebuild its forces in the area.
Hezbollah launched rockets into Israel a day after the militant Palestinian group Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, triggering the war in Gaza. After months of low-level fighting, the conflict escalated into a full-scale war in September 2024 before a U.S. brokered ceasefire nominally halted the fighting two months later.
