Hezbollah says Israel 'unable' to occupy any Lebanese villages

AFP , Monday 11 Nov 2024

​Hezbollah said on Monday that the Israeli military has been incapable of occupying even a single village in Lebanon since launching cross-border ground operations six weeks ago.

Hezbollah
Hezbollah spokesman Mohammad Afif speaks in front of a portrait of late Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, during a press in south Beirut. AFP

 

Israeli troops on 30 September began what the military called "localized and targeted raids" in Lebanon's southern border area, a week after escalating air strikes on Lebanon.

"After 45 days of bloody fighting, the enemy is still unable to occupy a single Lebanese village," Hezbollah spokesman Mohammad Afif told a news conference in south Beirut, a stronghold of the movement and a repeated target of Israeli air raids.

Hezbollah had on 23 October issued a similar statement that said Israel's army "has not been able to fully establish its control or completely occupy any village" in southern Lebanon.

On Monday, Hezbollah spokesman Afif said the group's fighters had repulsed Israeli troops in Khiam, about six kilometres (four miles) from the border.

He added that the Israelis also failed in attempts "to penetrate on several fronts at Bint Jbeil," about 17 kilometres southwest of Khiam.

Footage verified by AFP last week showed massive detonations in the village of Mais al-Jabal, between Bint Jbeil and Khiam.

Similar aerial scenes have been captured from several border villages since Israel sent in ground troops.


Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Khiam. AFP
 

Israeli airstrikes have predominantly targeted homes and residential areas, as doctors are seeing more children affected by the violence. More than 100 children have been killed in Lebanon in the past six weeks and hundreds injured. And of the 14,000 wounded since last year, around 10 percent are children. Many have been left with severed limbs, burned bodies, and broken families — scars that could last for a lifetime.

Israeli violence in Lebanon has displaced more than 1.2 million people from the southern border. 

Hezbollah accuses Israel of seeking to create a "no man's land" on the frontier.
 


A damaged car is seen next to a destroyed building in the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike that targetted the eastern Lebanese village of Zeghrine in the Hermel area. AFP
 

Hezbollah accuses Israel of seeking to create a "no man's land" on the frontier.

On 3 November, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told troops at the Lebanon border that the operation aimed to push Hezbollah back over the Litani River.

According to his office, his second goal was to stop any attempt to rearm, and the third was "to respond firmly to any action taken against us. "

Long war

On Monday, Hezbollah said it launched attacks on Israeli troops inside Lebanese territory as well as on locations and military positions in north Israel.

According to the Lebanese group, the targets included military bases near Safed and Haifa and an area north of Haifa.

Afif denied that Israeli strikes on Lebanon had diminished the group's missile stock.

He asked how that could be the case "when we targeted the suburbs of Tel Aviv several days ago" and employed for the first time Fateh missiles.

The group announced on 6 November that it had begun to use Fateh-110 Iranian-made surface-to-surface guided missiles.

In a March report, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies described Hezbollah as "probably the most heavily armed non-state group in the world," with an estimated 120,000-200,000 rockets and missiles.

When asked about ceasefire prospects, Afif said that since the election of Donald Trump last week to the United States presidency, there have been "contacts between Washington, Moscow, Tehran, and other capitals."

But he said: "According to my information nothing official has reached Hezbollah or the Lebanese state."

Israeli strikes killed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and other commanders, but Afif said the group remains "ready for a long war."

On Monday, Lebanon's official National News Agency reported a slew of Israeli strikes on the country's south and struck an area in the east at the Syrian border.

The news agency also said Israeli troops "blew up several houses on the outskirts of" the border village of Aita al-Shaab.

*This story has been edited by Ahram Online.

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