Air force ramps up Beirut strikes

Soldier killed in Lebanon as IDF pounds Hezbollah; rocket hits Haifa synagogue

5 hurt running for shelter in city; in Lebanon, IDF chief vows to ‘hit Hezbollah very, very hard’; Israeli troops said to reach deepest point in Lebanon since ground op began

By Emanuel Fabian,
ToI Staff and Agencies 16 November 2024, 5:24 pmUpdated at 9:10 pm Edit
Footage shows interceptions of Hezbollah rockets over the Haifa skyline; the scene of a rocket impact at a synagogue in the city following the attack; first responders deploy at the scene, November 16, 2024. (MIZRACHI TV / Magen David Adom (MDA) / AFP / X; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

A soldier was killed in fighting in southern Lebanon, the military announced on Saturday, as Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi vowed to continue battling Hezbollah until displaced residents from the north can return home, and troops reportedly reached their deepest point so far in Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah continued to launch drones and rocket barrages at northern Israel, including heavy fire toward Haifa, where there were several impacts.

Sgt. Ori Nisanovich, 21, of the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion, from Jerusalem, was killed fighting on Friday, the IDF said. According to an initial IDF probe, Nisanovich was killed during an exchange of fire with a Hezbollah gunman in a building in a southern Lebanon village. The operative was killed in the gun battle.

Nisanovich’s death brings the IDF’s toll in the ground offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon and during operations on the border to 44.

Saturday saw multiple barrages of dozens of rockets fired at the Western Galilee and Haifa Bay areas.

On Saturday evening, a barrage of 10 rockets was fired at Haifa, with several intercepted but others impacted areas of the city, including one that caused heavy damage to a synagogue building. Five people were hurt while running for shelter throughout the city, said first responders.

Earlier in the day sirens wailed several times in the northern city of Nahariya, due to hostile drone infiltrations. The IDF said four drones were intercepted throughout the day, with shrapnel from one hitting an apartment in the city.

Slight damage was caused, but there were no injuries.

Near the city of Tamra, a rocket struck a farm building, causing heavy damage and killing several animals inside, police said.

No people were injured in the attack.

Police outside a building in an agricultural field heavily damaged by a rocket, near the northern city of Tamra, November 16, 2024. (Israel Police)

Following a fresh assessment amid the ground operation in southern Lebanon, the IDF announced on Saturday evening that it had imposed a new closed military zone on the Lebanon border, in the areas of Metula and Kfar Yuval.

The order prohibits civilians from areas where the Israeli military is operating, including in Israel across the border from Lebanese villages where fighting may be taking place.

It will remain in effect until Sunday night.

On Saturday evening, the army released remarks made by Halevi during a visit to the Lebanese border village of Kafr Kila earlier this week. The army chief said the IDF would continue to strike Hezbollah until displaced Israelis from the north can return to their homes.

“Hezbollah has [paid] a very high price — its chain of command has collapsed, many operatives have been killed, infrastructure has been destroyed. The organization will continue to fire, we will continue to fight, we will continue to implement plans, go further, attack deep, and hit Hezbollah, very, very hard,” Halevi said. “We will stop when we know that we are bringing the residents [back] safely.”

Sgt. Ori Nisanovich (Israel Defense Forces)

Lebanese state media reported that IDF troops reached the deepest point in Lebanon since the army started its incursion over the border six weeks ago, before ostensibly pulling back early Saturday after fierce battles with Hezbollah.

The state-run National News Agency reported that Israeli troops temporarily captured a strategic hill in the southern Lebanese village of Shama, about five kilometers (3 miles) from the border early Saturday, before later being pushed back. The outlet claimed soldiers detonated several buildings including a shrine before they withdrew.

None of the claims could be immediately verified.

The military said in a statement that its troops “continue their limited, localized, and targeted operational activity in southern Lebanon.” The military did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Lebanese media reports.

The push on the ground came as Israeli warplanes pounded Beirut’s southern suburbs as well as several other areas in southern Lebanon, including the port city of Tyre.

The IDF said on Saturday evening that it had carried out four waves of airstrikes throughout the day on Hezbollah targets in the terror group’s southern Beirut stronghold, including command centers.

In the past week, the IDF says it struck some 50 Hezbollah sites in Dahiyeh, Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Before the strikes were carried out it issued evacuation warnings to civilians in the area.

The military also confirmed that it had carried out strikes against Hezbollah targets in Tyre on Saturday.

According to the military, the sites hit by fighter jets included command centers, weapon depots, buildings used by Hezbollah, and numerous other assets belonging to the terror group.

Many of the sites belonged to Hezbollah’s Aziz regional division, responsible for rocket fire on Israel from the western sector of southern Lebanon.

The military announced several waves of strikes on Saturday targeting Hezbollah assets, and at least nine individual airstrikes were reported by Reuters.

 

Before the strikes, the IDF issued evacuation warnings to civilians in the vicinity of the buildings used by Hezbollah.

After one of the strikes, a plume of smoke could be seen rising over the buildings in the area, in unverified footage posted to social media.

Lebanon’s NNA said “the enemy” carried out three air raids, including one near Haret Hreik.

“The first strike near Haret Hreik destroyed buildings and caused damage in the area,” it said.

It later reported a separate raid by “enemy aircraft” in the neighborhood of Chiyah.

In southern Lebanon, Israel carried out several strikes on Friday night and early Saturday, according to NNA. The outlet said a strike in Tyre “targeted the ‘ruins district,’ resulting in the destruction of two buildings and damage to other surrounding buildings.”

Airstrikes killed a medic in the town of Borj Rahal in the Tyre District, and strikes on an emergency response team in the southern town of Kfar Tebnit killed one medic and injured four others while two medics were missing, the Lebanese health ministry said.

Separately, two senior Islamic Jihad figures were killed in an Israeli strike on Syria on Thursday, according to a source from the Palestinian terror group, which has fought against Israel in Gaza alongside Hamas.

The source told AFP on Saturday that Abdel Aziz Minawi, a member of Islamic Jihad’s political bureau, and the terror group’s foreign relations chief Rasmi Abu Issa were killed in the strike on Qudsaya, in the Damascus area.

The IDF had said on Thursday it hit several buildings and command centers belonging to the PIJ.

A firetruck arrives at the scene of a reported Israeli strike in the Mazzeh district of Damascus on November 14, 2024. (Louai Beshara/AFP)

On Friday, the UN observer force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, said a 155mm live artillery shell hit its headquarters in Shama.

“The shell did not detonate and Italian bomb disposal experts swiftly secured the area, removed the ordnance and conducted a controlled detonation,” UNIFIL said, adding that no one was injured and only minor damages were incurred to the base’s gym.

UNIFIL personnel were in shelters during the strike.

“We strongly remind all actors of their obligations to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel and properties. Deliberate attacks on peacekeepers are a grave violation of international humanitarian laws and of the UN Security Council Resolution 1701,” UNIFIL added.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani spoke with his Israeli counterpart Gideon Sa’ar and protested the attacks against its personnel and UNIFIL infrastructure, an Italian statement said, while adding that Israel will investigate the incident.

A UNIFIL armored vehicle drives through Beirut as part of a UN peacekeeping convoy heading towards south Lebanon, on November 12, 2024. (Patrick Baz/AFP)

Ceasefire proposal

Amid optimism for a ceasefire deal to end the conflict in Lebanon, the Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat reported Saturday that a written proposal from the US received by Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri does not include freedom of movement for IDF troops in Lebanon.

Lebanon will reply to the US offer “very soon” with its reservations, according to the report from the London-based paper.

Berri, a Hezbollah ally who often serves as a conduit for diplomacy, was quoted as stressing, “There can be no undermining of our sovereignty.”

He reportedly met with US Ambassador Lisa Johnson last week to receive Washington’s first written proposal in at least several weeks.

The Axios news site reported Friday that Israel is demanding a side letter from the US that includes guarantees from Washington that Israel will be allowed to take military action in Lebanon against Hezbollah if the terror group tries to re-establish its military presence along the border.

According to Asharq, Berri also voiced opposition to the idea of forming a committee to implement UN Resolution 1701, which ended the last round of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, claiming that UNIFIL can do the job. The UN agency failed to enforce the resolution since 2006, allowing Hezbollah to build up a heavy armed presence along the border.

File: US Envoy Amos Hochstein (L) meets with Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Beirut on October 21, 2024. (AFP)

Israel has portrayed its offensive in southern Lebanon as essentially stepping in and doing UNIFIL’s job for it.

Since October 8, 2023, 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.

Some 60,000 residents were evacuated from northern towns on the Lebanon border shortly after fellow terror group Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, amid fears Hezbollah would carry out a similar attack, and increasing rocket fire by the terror group.

The attacks on northern Israel have resulted in the deaths of 43 civilians. In addition, 69 IDF soldiers and reservists have died in cross-border skirmishes and in the ensuing ground operation launched in southern Lebanon in late September. Two soldiers have been killed in a drone attack from Iraq, and there have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.

The IDF estimates that some 3,000 Hezbollah operatives have been killed in the conflict. Around 100 members of other terror groups, along with hundreds of civilians, have also been reported killed in Lebanon. Hezbollah has named 516 members who have been killed by Israel amid the fighting, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. These numbers have not been consistently updated since Israel began a new offensive against Hezbollah in September.

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