IDF orders more towns to evacuate in Lebanon as rocket barrages target northern Israel
In first, some of the towns warned to empty are located north of Litani River; army says forces killed 60 Hezbollah men and hit 200 targets over past day
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
As it continued its airstrikes in Lebanon and ground offensive against Hezbollah in the country’s south, the Israel Defense Forces said Thursday that in the past day, its forces had killed some 60 Hezbollah operatives, while the air force had struck more than 200 targets.
It also called on residents of 25 villages in southern Lebanon to evacuate immediately and head north. Among the list of cities, towns, and villages is Nabatieh, one of the largest cities in southern Lebanon. Nabatieh and several other villages on the list are north of the Litani River — the first time Israel has ordered evacuations north of the body of water seen as a strategic line.
At the same time, over 75 rockets were fired by Hezbollah Thursday morning at northern Israel, setting off sirens in the cities of Safed, Tiberias and numerous other communities in the Galilee and forcing residents to take cover in shelters.
Many of the rockets were intercepted, the army said, while others hit open areas. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Several drones were also launched from Lebanon at northern Israel on Thursday. The IDF said two were shot down over the Western Galilee, while another was intercepted over the sea off the coast of Nahariya. A fourth landed in an open area near Nahariya, according to the military, causing no injuries.
Earlier in the morning, an explosive drone from Lebanon impacted in the northern Golan Heights. The IDF did not immediately provide further details on the incident.
Meanwhile, Iranian media reported that a consultant with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards had died of injuries sustained in an alleged Israeli air attack in the Syrian capital Damascus on Monday. It identified the consultant as Majid Divani, without giving further details.
As the army instructed Lebanese residents to leave communities, Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, said in a statement on X: “Hezbollah’s activity forces the IDF to act against it. The IDF does not wish to harm you. For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately. Anyone who is near Hezbollah operatives, their facilities or their weapons, puts themselves at risk.”
The Lebanese civilians were urged to evacuate and head north. “Attention, do not move south! Any movement south could endanger your life,” the statement said, adding that it would update the civilians when they can return.
On Wednesday, the IDF issued similar orders to 24 other villages in southern Lebanon, and the day before that, warned a further 28. The military has also warned vehicles must not cross the Litani River in a southbound direction.
The military has described the ground operations in southern Lebanon as “limited, localized, and targeted raids,” with the goal of demolishing Hezbollah’s infrastructure in the border area. Officials have said that the military intends for the operations to end as quickly as possible.
Overnight, some 15 Hezbollah operatives holed up at the town hall of southern Lebanon’s Bint Jbeil were killed in an Israeli airstrike, the military said. According to the IDF, fighter jets struck the Bint Jbeil town hall in a joint operation with the 36th Division after several Hezbollah operatives were identified there. The military said the building was used by Hezbollah to store weapons.
במהלך הלילה, מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר, תקפו באופן ממוקד ובשיתוף אוגדה 36, את בניין עיריית בינת ג'בל שבו פעלו מספר מחבלים של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה. בבניין אוחסנו אמצעי לחימה רבים ששימשו את הארגון. במסגרת התקיפה חוסלו כ-15 מחבלים ששהו בבניין>> pic.twitter.com/eCuSJXmm3q
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) October 3, 2024
In another joint operation, an IAF drone struck and killed a cell of Hezbollah operatives who were identified by troops of the 36th Division launching rockets at Israel.
On Thursday morning, two Hezbollah operatives opened fire at Golani soldiers in southern Lebanon and a short while later, artillery forces identified the pair and directed an IAF drone to strike and kill them. No soldiers were hurt in the incident, according to the IDF.
In a separate joint operation with the 98th Division, several Hezbollah operatives who launched missiles at the Ramim Ridge area on Wednesday were killed in a strike carried out by IAF fighter jets.
Fighter jets struck many other Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon in the past day, including buildings used by the terror group, operatives, weapon depots, observation posts, and other infrastructure, the IDF said.
Meanwhile, Fox News published a report in which journalist Trey Yingst embedded with the IDF as elite forces entered southern Lebanon and infiltrated a Hezbollah outpost in recent days.
“It’s in tunnels and rooms like this the Israelis say they are finding Iranian weapons that were smuggled first to Syria and then into southern Lebanon,” the Fox reporter said as he walked through a tunnel carved into rock at a Hezbollah position close by.
He noted that to get the position, which he said was less than a mile from the border, troops had to cross minefields and walk through difficult terrain.
At least six people were killed in an Israeli airstrike in central Beirut early Thursday, Lebanese health officials said, after the IDF announced it was carrying out a “targeted” attack in Lebanon’s capital.
Reports said the target was an apartment building in Beirut’s Bashoura neighborhood, close to parliament, the nearest Israeli strikes have come to Lebanon’s seat of government. The attack also marked the second time Israel has struck central Beirut this week.
Images from the scene showed a heavily damaged building with a fire on one the lower floors.
In addition to the six fatalities, seven people were wounded in the strike, according to Lebanese health officials.
Multiple strikes were also reported in Beirut’s southern suburbs — a Hezbollah stronghold known as Dahiyeh — in areas issued evacuation warnings by the Israeli army. The area struck in central Beirut was not covered in those warnings.
The IDF has been operating inside Lebanon since Monday night, when the 98th Division crossed over the border to demolish the terror group’s infrastructure with the aim of safely returning the tens of thousands of displaced Israelis to their homes in the north of the country.
The IDF has said that it intends for the operations to end as quickly as possible and reiterated Wednesday that any house used by the Lebanese terror group for military purposes would be a target.
Wednesday saw Israel announce its first fatalities in the ground offensive in Lebanon, naming eight soldiers killed in combat with Hezbollah.
Six commandos were killed during a gun battle with Hezbollah operatives in a southern Lebanon village. Multiple soldiers were wounded during the incident and amid efforts to extract those hurt and killed. The IDF assessed that troops killed more than 20 Hezbollah operatives in the area.
Two more soldiers were killed in a separate incident, in which another soldier was seriously wounded.
In a third incident, a combat medic with the Golani Brigade’s 51st Battalion was seriously wounded.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent his condolences to the families of the fallen soldiers in a video statement.
“We are in the middle of a tough war against Iran’s axis of evil, which seeks to destroy us,” Netanyahu said. “This will not happen, because we will stand together, and with God’s help — we will win together.”
The IDF’s ground offensive began some two weeks into intensified fighting with Hezbollah, and after Operation Northern Arrows was launched earlier in September to meet the recently declared war goal of bringing residents of the north back to their homes following their evacuation last October under heavy rocket fire from the Lebanese terror group.
Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.
So far, the skirmishes have resulted in 26 civilian deaths on the Israeli side, and — excluding the soldiers killed in the ground operation — the deaths of 22 IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
Hezbollah had named 516 members killed by Israel during the skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. Another 92 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and dozens of civilians have also been killed. These numbers have not been consistently updated since Israel began its new offensive against Hezbollah in September.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry says more than 1,000 Lebanese have been killed and 6,000 wounded in the past two weeks, without specifying how many were civilians. Israel has said that many Hezbollah operatives are among the dead. The government says that one million people — a fifth of the population — have fled their homes.
Times of Israel staff and Agencies contributed to this report.
