While fighting Hezbollah, Israel tells more people in south Lebanon to leave the area

Israeli troops crossed the border into south Lebanon on Thursday and attacked Hezbollah targets in a neighborhood of Beirut. They told people in more than 20 towns in that area to leave their homes right away.

The most recent threats brought the number of southern towns that need to evacuate to 70. This included Nabatieh, the capital of the province, which suggested that Israel would soon launch another military operation against the armed group backed by Iran.

It also launched new attacks, firing a hail of rockets at what it called Israel’s “Sakhnin base” for military businesses in Haifa Bay, which is on the Mediterranean coast of northern Israel.

As Israel moves into Lebanon, it is also thinking about how to respond to its biggest attack ever on Tuesday, which came from Iran, its biggest enemy.

When asked Thursday if he would agree with Israel attacking Iran’s oil sites, U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters, “We’re talking about that.” The words made the price of oil go up even more, and rising tensions in the Middle East have made traders more worried about possible supply problems.

“Today is not going to happen,” Biden said. The president said on Wednesday that he would not back an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear targets.

Two sources told Reuters that Gulf Arab states tried to reassure Iran that they would not get involved in the conflict between Iran and Israel at meetings this week in Doha. They were worried that a wider rise in violence could put their oil sites at risk.

Israel has been fighting Hamas in Gaza, a Palestinian territory, for almost a year. On Tuesday, after two weeks of heavy bombings that made the situation worse and could involve the US, Israel sent troops into southern Lebanon.

Tens of thousands of Israelis had to leave northern Israel because of Hezbollah bombings during the Gaza war. Israel says its operations in Lebanon are meant to let them go back home.

Around 2,000 people have been killed by Israel in attacks on Lebanon in the past year, most of them in the last two weeks. More than 1.2 million Lebanese have been forced to leave their homes because of the attacks.

The World Health Organization said that in the last 24 hours, 28 people working in health care had been killed in Lebanon. A lot of medical and trauma supplies were supposed to be sent to Lebanon on Friday, but Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the WHO, said that they would not be able to because of flight limits.

Hezbollah says it has fought off several land attacks by Israeli troops, both by ambushing them and fighting them directly.

Security sources in Lebanon say that Israeli troops have come into Lebanon and been pushed back several times in the last few days without staying there permanently.

Hezbollah said Thursday that it killed 17 Israeli soldiers in battle in southern Lebanon, citing security and field sources. Israeli forces didn’t say anything about the report.

On Thursday, Israel’s military said that one man had died. It said on Wednesday that eight soldiers had died, making it the deadliest day in a year of fighting with Hezbollah.

As Hezbollah kept firing across the border, rocket sirens kept going off in towns in northern Israel, sending people running for cover.

The Lebanese army said that two troops were killed by Israeli airstrikes in south Lebanon on Thursday. One was killed during an attack on a military post, and the other was killed during a rescue mission with the Lebanese Red Cross.

The army said it fired back when the military post was attacked, which is unusual for a group that usually stays out of big conflicts with Israel.

BEIRUT IS UNDER ATTACK

Hezbollah controls the densely populated southern suburb of Beirut called Dahiye. On Thursday, strong Israeli airstrikes were heard and large clouds of smoke rose from the area.

Israel bombed central Beirut overnight, killing nine people, according to the Lebanese health minister.

There were 15 Hezbollah targets hit by Israeli troops in Beirut on Thursday. These included information and weapons sites.

Reporters for Reuters said they heard a loud explosion after an Israeli attack on a building in the Bachoura district, just a few hundred meters from parliament. This is the closest an Israeli attack has come to the central downtown district.

There was an attack in Beirut that killed seven people from a civil defense group with ties to Hezbollah. Two of them were doctors.

It also said it had hit a government building in the town of Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon, killing 15 Hezbollah fighters and destroying many weapons.

People from a number of countries were being evacuated from Beirut, and governments all over the world were telling their people to leave.

WHAT IRAN SAYS

After Iran fired missiles at Israel on Tuesday, Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, promised that Iran would pay. The United States also promised to work with its longtime partner to make sure Iran faced “severe consequences.”

Masoud Pezeshkian, the president of Iran, said Thursday in Doha that Tehran would be ready to react.

“Any type of military attack, terrorist act or crossing our red lines will be met with a decisive response by our armed forces,” he told us.

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar, called for a real ceasefire to stop what he called Israel’s aggression.

Twelve months ago, Hezbollah fired rockets in Israel to back Hamas in its war with Israel in Gaza. This caused the border front in Lebanon to open. Iran’s other friends in the area, like the Houthis in Yemen and armed groups in Iraq, have also attacked in support of Hamas.