Middle East crisis live: Israel ‘will do whatever it takes to avoid 7 October-style attack’ as it launches Lebanon ground raids | Lebanon

The raids by Israeli troops in southern Lebanon that began overnight were limited and went only a short distance over the border, an Israeli security official has told Reuters, adding that no direct clashes with Hezbollah fighters were reported.

Reuters said the official would not be drawn on how far inside Lebanon the IDF service personnel had reached, but suggested it was within walking distance of the UN-drawn blue line which separates the two countries.

The official told the news agency a wider operation targeting the Lebanese capital Beirut, which has been hit by repeated airstrikes in recent days, was “not on the table”.

The suggestion there has been no clashes directly contradicts an earlier statement by IDF Arabic language spokesperson Avichay Adraee, who in a warning to Lebanese citizens that they should not move south of the Litani River claimed that there was heavy fighting.

Israel’s military spokesperson Daniel Hagari has issued a video message in English, in which he has claimed Israel is attacking villages inside Lebanon which Hezbollah has converted to military bases as part of a plan to launch an attack on Israel, and said his nation will “continue doing whatever necessary” to avoid a 7 October style attack happening again on “any one of our borders”.

In the statement, Hagari says:

The Israel Defense Forces is conducting limited and targeted raids along Israel’s northern border against the threat Hezbollah poses to civilians in northern Israel. These localized ground raids will target Hezbollah strongholds that threaten Israeli towns, kibbutzim and communities along our border.

Hezbollah turned Lebanese villages next to Israeli villages into military bases all ready for an attack on Israel. Hezbollah had prepared to use those villages as staging grounds for an 7 October style invasion into Israeli homes. Hezbollah planned to invade Israel, attack Israeli communities and massacre innocent men, women and children. They called this plan “Conquer the Galilee”.

For decades, UN security council resolutions have called on Lebanon to make sure that its territory is free of non-governmental armed groups. UN security council resolution 1701 from 2006, agreed upon by Israel and Lebanon, requires that there be no armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the government of Lebanon and Unifil in southern Lebanon.

18 years after [resolution] 1701, Hezbollah is the world’s largest non-state army, and southern Lebanon is swarming with Hezbollah terrorists and weapons. If the state of Lebanon and the world can’t push Hezbollah away from our border, we have no choice but to do it ourselves.

I want to make it clear our war is with Hezbollah, not with the people of Lebanon. We do not want to harm Lebanese civilians, and we are taking measures to prevent that. We will not let [a] 7 October happen again on any one of our borders. We will continue doing whatever necessary so that Israeli families can return to their homes in safety and security.

The Lebanese government has said that since Israel stepped up its airstrikes on the country, about 1,000 people including women and children have been killed, about 6,000 injured, and an estimated one million people displaced from their homes.

About 60,000 people in northern Israel have been displaced from their homes by rocket fire from Hezbollah and other anti-Israeli forces operating inside Lebanon. Dozens were killed in Lebanon and thousands more wounded when pagers and walkie-talkies were detonated last month. Although it has not directly claimed responsibility, the attack is widely attributed to an Israeli operation targeting Hezbollah operatives.

One of the UN’s social media accounts this morning posted to remind members that article 2.4 of the UN Charter states that “All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.”

Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, recently described a non-binding vote by the UN general assembly that Israel end its nearly six decades of occupying the Palestinian West Bank territory as “shameful.”

William Christou is in Beirut for the Guardian, and has this latest report on the situation this morning:

Following Israel’s announcement that it was starting a “limited” incursion into south Lebanon, Israel’s military spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued a statement on Tuesday morning, telling Lebanese not to travel in vehicles from the north to the region south of the Litani river “for their personal safety”.

“Heavy fighting is taking place in southern Lebanon, with Hezbollah elements using the civilian environment and the population as human shields to launch attacks,” Adraee said in an announcement on X.

The Litani river, about 20 miles north of the Lebanon-Israel border, separates the border region from the rest of Lebanon. Israel has demanded that Hezbollah withdraw its fighters north of the Litani river since fighting began on 8 October. Hezbollah has refused to negotiate on its presence south of the Litani until a ceasefire in Gaza was achieved.

Israeli jets carried out strikes on over a dozen targets in south Lebanon overnight, while shelling targeted areas facing the closed military zone established by Israel on Monday night. Israel also struck what it said were “Hezbollah installations” in Dahieh, the southern suburbs of Beirut, in successive waves of airstrikes.

Hezbollah announced that it was targeting Israeli soldiers who were approaching the UN-drawn blue line that separates Israel and Lebanon with rockets and shelling. The group said that it had fired on Israeli troops in Metula, a town on the Israeli side of the line, on Monday morning.

Lebanese authorities had yet to report casualties for the overnight fighting, but a medical source in Marjayoun public hospital in south Lebanon said they received wounded overnight.

Residents of south Lebanon found themselves unable to flee during the intense bombing overnight, with at least two major roads reported impassable due to airstrikes.