– ‘Fierce’ Hezbollah Resistance On Ground As Israel Says Lebanon Offensive To Last ‘Weeks’:
https://archive.is/BOMSK
Israel’s military (IDF) on Tuesday announced it is calling up four additional reserves brigades to deploy to the northern front after the night prior a ground assault into Lebanon, dubbed Operation Northern Arrows, began.
So far there’s little that can be confirmed on the ground amid the fog of war. Hezbollah on Tuesday is even denying that Israeli forces have actually crossed into southern Lebanon after the IDF declared “limited” raids were happening. Heavy artillery and Israeli airstrikes are presumably paving the battlespace for a deeper and bigger infantry incursion.
What is confirmed is that the regular Lebanese Army has withdrawn some five kilometers from the border and that a UN peacekeeping force has been notified of the offensive and UN troops are “in position”. Israel is characterizing its operations so far as “localized raids”.
At least 25 Lebanese villages have been told to evacuate by Israel’s military. Their inhabitants have been ‘ordered’ to make it north of the Awali River. Lebanese Christian villages have been targeted in some cases, and their inhabitants have also been forced out.
“Local residents have told Reuters that at least 600 people sought refuge in a monastery on the Israel-Lebanon border after the Israeli army warned them to flee their Christian village of Ain Ebl,” writes Al Jazeera. “The villagers went to the monastery in the town of Rmeish, which did not receive an Israeli warning, and were waiting for an army convoy to escort them to Beirut, the residents told the news agency.”
A well-known Greek Orthodox priest of these southern villages, who oversaw a church in in Ibl al-Saqi, was critically wounded in an Israeli airstrike on Monday. There are conflicting reports, but some regional sources say that Fr. Gregorius Saloum succumbed to his injuries. Lebanon is some 40% Christian, with rest of the population being majority Shia, and a sizable Sunni minority as well, chiefly concentrated in and around Tripoli in the north.
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