Israel launches intense wave of airstrikes on 120 sites in Lebanon

BEIRUT: Israel launched an intense wave of air raids on southern Lebanon on Monday, with 100 aircraft targeting about 120 sites in the space of an hour, according to the country’s military.

An IDF Arabic spokesperson issued an urgent warning to Lebanese civilians to avoid being on the beach or on boats on the coast from the Awali River southward until further notice. The wave of strikes came as Israelis marked the anniversary of last year’s 7 October attacks by Hamas, the trigger for a year of escalating war in the region.

The IDF also announced on Monday that it had designated a new closed military zone in northern Israel, the fourth closed area since the ground invasion started, running eastward from the Mediterranean coast.

“These targets belonged to various units of the Hezbollah terrorist organisation, including regional units of Hezbollah’s southern front, the Radwan Forces, the Missiles and Rockets Force, and the Intelligence Directorate,” the IDF said in a statement.

“This operation follows a series of strikes aimed at degrading Hezbollah’s command, control, and firing capabilities, as well as assisting ground forces in achieving their operational goals.” As memorial events took place across Israel, violence continued to rage on multiple fronts, with Israel also expanding its ground operation into Lebanon with elements of a third division joining the fighting.

Amid clear evidence that Israel is rapidly ramping up its military operations against multiple Iran-allied proxies, Hamas fired rockets out of Gaza to coincide with memorial events, vowing to continue with a “long and painful war of attrition” against Israel.

Hamas’s ability to fire rockets, although massively constrained by 12 months of a devastating Israeli offensive that has claimed more than 41,000 Palestinian lives, comes despite periodic statements from the IDF declaring the group effectively beaten.

Despite the quickly increasing tempo of Israeli military operations, Hezbollah also fired scores of missiles at Israel throughout the day on Monday, while a ballistic missile fired by Yemen’s Houthis was shot down as evening fell.

Fears of a wider regional escalation, not least from the anticipated “significant” retaliation that Israel has promised for Iran’s large-scale missile attack last week, were underlined by the UK’s announcement that it had withdrawn family members of diplomats in the country.

“As a precautionary measure following escalation in the region, family members of British embassy staff have been temporarily withdrawn,” the Foreign Office travel advice webpage for Israel reads.

“Our staff members remain.” With expectation high that Israel could launch a major retaliation against Iran at any moment, Tehran repeated its own insistence that it would respond to any Israeli attack on its soil.