Israeli forces have launched limited ground incursions in Lebanon, the United States said Monday, as militant group Hezbollah said it targeted “enemy soldiers” at the countries’ border.

A Lebanese security official said Israel had conducted at least six strikes on south Beirut, after Israel’s army ordered residents in the Hezbollah stronghold to evacuate.

Despite international calls for de-escalation, Israel earlier vowed to keep fighting Hezbollah and sealed part of the border after killing the Iran-backed group’s leader.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant warned the battle was not over even after the massive strike on Beirut that killed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Friday, dealing the group a seismic blow.

Biden ceasefire call

U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told journalists Israeli officials “have informed us that they are currently conducting… limited operations targeting Hezbollah infrastructure near the border”.

Hezbollah fighters were “ready if Israel decides to enter by land”, the group’s deputy leader Naim Qassem said in a first televised address since Nasrallah’s death.

Lebanon’s national army, dwarfed by Hezbollah’s military power, was “repositioning” troops farther from the border, a military official told AFP.

World leaders have urged de-escalation, with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric saying: “We do not want any sort of ground invasion.”

U.S. President Joe Biden, whose country is Israel’s main weapons supplier, earlier on Monday indicated he opposed an Israeli ground operation.

“We should have a ceasefire now,” he said.

Hezbollah ‘targets’ troops

Earlier this month, Israel launched a wave of deadly air strikes aimed at Hezbollah across Lebanon, the latest of which killed 95 people on Monday, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

On Monday evening, the Israeli army called on people in three districts of southern Beirut to evacuate.

“You are located near interests and facilities belonging to the terrorist Hezbollah group,” Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee said.

“For your safety and the safety of your family members, you must evacuate the buildings immediately and stay away from them.”

AFP correspondents in the capital heard explosions and saw a flash around ground level.

Hezbollah said in a statement it “targeted” Israeli troops carrying out “movements” in orchards near the Lebanese border, with a source close to the group saying the soldiers were “right on the border”.

Earlier, in northern Israel near the Lebanese border, Gallant said that “we will use all the means that may be required… from the air, from the sea, and on land”.

He said the killing of Nasrallah was “an important step, but it is not the final one”.

Everyone is afraid

Hezbollah began low-intensity strikes on Israeli troops a day after its Palestinian ally Hamas staged its unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, which triggered Israel’s devastating assault on the Gaza Strip.

The border clashes rapidly escalated this month.

On Monday, the Israeli army declared an area of the border strip a “closed military zone”.

Israel’s strikes on Lebanon have killed hundreds of people over the past week and forced up to a million to flee their homes, according to Lebanese officials.

Hezbollah and other groups launched rockets, drones and some missiles at Israel over the same period, causing some injuries but no deaths.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran, which backs Hamas, Hezbollah and other armed groups, of plunging “our region deeper… into war”.

“There is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach,” Netanyahu warned.

Iran has said Nasrallah’s killing would bring about Israel’s “destruction”, though the foreign ministry said Monday that Tehran would not deploy any fighters to confront Israel.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati called for a ceasefire based on a recent U.S.-French proposal, urging “an end to the Israeli aggression against Lebanon”.

Earlier on Monday, an Israeli strike hit a building in central Beirut, with an armed Palestinian group saying it had killed three of its members.

The strike, the first in the city centre in years, sparked panic.

Central Beirut resident Kahier Bannout, 42, said it was “supposed to be a safe area — not a war zone”.

“Everyone is afraid.”

Lebanon’s Health Minister Firass Abiad said more than 1,000 people have been killed since September 17.

UN refugee agency chief Filippo Grandi said “well over 200,000 people are displaced inside Lebanon”, while more than 100,000 have fled to neighbouring Syria.

Little time

France on Monday evening said it was deploying a naval ship to Lebanon as a “precaution” in case it decided to evacuate French citizens.

Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, the first high-level diplomat to visit Beirut since the Israeli strikes intensified, said “there is still hope” for a ceasefire, “but there is little time”.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said diplomacy was the best path forward for the region.

Washington “will continue to work… to advance a diplomatic resolution” for the Israel-Lebanon border, and for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release deal, he said.

The United States, Qatar and Egypt tried for months to broker such a deal, which Netanyahu’s domestic critics accused him of obstructing.

In Gaza, AFP journalists said the number of Israeli air strikes has dropped significantly in recent days.

A UN Satellite Centre assessment issued Monday said “two-thirds of the total structures in the Gaza Strip have sustained damage” in nearly a year of war.

Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,615 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN has described the figures as reliable.

Smoke billows over southern Lebanon following Israeli strike, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Tyre, Lebanon September 25, 2024.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

World leaders lined up at the United Nations on Tuesday (September 24, 2024) to call on Israel to refrain from a full-scale war in Lebanon, with the organization’s chief warning the situation was on the “brink.”

The UN General Assembly, the high point of the international diplomatic calendar, comes after Lebanese authorities said Israeli strikes had killed 558 people— 50 of them children.

“Full-scale war is not in anyone’s interest. Even though the situation has escalated, a diplomatic solution is still possible,” U.S. President Joe Biden said in his farewell address to the global body.

“In fact, it remains the only path to lasting security to allow the residents from both countries to return to their homes on the border safely,” Mr. Biden said ahead of an emergency UN Security Council session on Lebanon planned for Wednesday.

Mr. Biden’s remarks drew disappointment from Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib who said they were “not promising” and “would not solve the Lebanese problem,” as he estimated that the number of people displaced by Israel’s strikes has likely soared to reach half a million.

“We should all be alarmed by the escalation. Lebanon is at the brink,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said when he opened the gathering.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said his country was “not eager” for a ground invasion of Lebanon.

“We don’t want to send our boys to fight in a foreign country,” he said.

‘End this war’

It is unclear what progress can be made to defuse the situation in Lebanon, with efforts to broker a ceasefire in Gaza— which Israel has relentlessly pounded since October 2023— coming to nothing.

Mr. Biden on Tuesday pushed again for an elusive ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, telling the global body it was time to “end this war.”

Mediator Qatar accused Israel of obstructing Gaza ceasefire talks, with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani saying “there is no Israeli partner for peace” under the government of Benjamin Netanyahu.

But he added: “We will continue our efforts of mediation to resolve the disputes through peaceful means.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel of dragging the entire region “into war.”

“Not only children but also the UN system is dying in Gaza,” Mr. Erdogan said in a scathing speech.

Mr. Guterres cautioned against “the possibility of transforming Lebanon (into) another Gaza,” calling the situation in the Palestinian territory a “non-stop nightmare.”

European Council President Charles Michel said that Israel had the right to exist and defend itself but without inflicting “collective punishment” on civilians living in areas targeted by its military.

President Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran— which backs Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza— condemned “senseless and incomprehensible” inaction by the UN against Israel.

‘Charade of hypocrisy’

British Foreign Minister David Lammy also sounded the alarm over the escalating violence in Lebanon.

“I am very worried about the risk of escalation, and this breaking into a wider regional conflict,” he told AFP as Britain announced it was deploying military units to Cyprus to assist with any evacuation of its citizens from Lebanon.

Responding to criticism of Israel, Mr. Danon called the General Assembly debate an “annual charade of hypocrisy.”

Since last year’s annual gathering, when Sudan’s civil war and Russia’s Ukraine invasion dominated, the world has faced an explosion of crises.

The October 7 attack by Palestinian group Hamas on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people and prompted a military response in Gaza that authorities say has killed at least 41,467 people.

Militants also seized 251 hostages, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.

Violence has raged across multiple fronts in the Middle East since the crisis erupted, with the conflict exposing deep divisions at the UN.

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas took his seat alongside the Palestinian delegation, placed in alphabetical order in the General Assembly for the first time on Tuesday after the delegation received upgraded privileges in May.

At the rostrum, Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Tuesday ruled out the forced displacement by Israel of Palestinians to his country, which he said would be a “war crime.”

Ukraine was also on the agenda Tuesday with President Volodymyr Zelensky addressing a UN Security Council meeting on the Russian invasion.

“Russia can only be forced into peace, and that is exactly what’s needed— forcing Russia into peace,” Zelenskyy said.