THE ISRAELI MILITARY has called for the evacuation of the Baalbek area in eastern Lebanon, warning that it was ready to strike Hezbollah targets there and in nearby Douris.
The latest evacuation call came as the military’s Home Front Command activated sirens at regular intervals along the border as dozens of projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory since this morning.
“You are currently located near the facilities and assets associated with Hezbollah, which the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will be targeting in the near future,” the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X addressed to residents of Baalbek and Douris.
The Israeli air force intercepted several projectiles that were fired from Lebanon into Israeli territory, while some fell in open areas, the military said in a statement.
On Thursday, rocket fire from Lebanon killed seven people in the town of Metula in northern Israel, including four Thai farmers.
Israel and the Lebanese armed movement Hezbollah have been locked in a deadly conflict since 23 September that has killed more than 1,900 people in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.
Israel’s military says 38 soldiers have been killed in the Lebanon campaign since it began ground operations on 30 September.
Clashes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants erupted on 8 October last year when the Lebanese group began firing rockets into Israel in support of its ally Hamas, a day after the Palestinian militant group launched an unprecedented attack on Israel from Gaza.
On Saturday, Israel said its naval forces captured a senior Hezbollah operative in north Lebanon.
The operation took place in the northern Lebanese town of Batroun, the official said, without providing the name of the person they detained.
Lebanese authorities said they were investigating whether Israel was behind the capture of a Lebanese sea captain who was taken away by a group of armed men who had landed on the coast at Batroun on Friday.
Separately, a monument commemorating Irish soldiers killed in the last 40 years on peacekeeping duty in Lebanon was damaged in recent bombing raids by Israel that have also devastated an Irish funded orphanage in the village of Tibnine.
The Monument in a cedar grove is within the mostly Christian hamlet located 20 kilometres by road to the south from the main Irish base at Camp Shamrock.
Local sources have said that Israeli jets bombed a house adjacent to the monument – this may be the cause of the damage. The Journal also recently published images of a bombing next to the local Red Cross medical facility.
The bombings have happened in recent weeks with the village suffering extensive damage to roads, homes as well as facilities such as the orphanage which has received funding from Irish Aid and the Irish Defence Forces.
Tibnine is located north of the Hezbollah stronghold of Bint Jbeil and also of the larger town of At Tiri which is close to Camp Shamrock which is also known as United Nations Post 2-45.
© AFP 2024, with reporting from Jane Moore and Niall O’Connor
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