US urges Israel to quickly pivot from military offensive to diplomacy in Lebanon

The US on Sunday urged Israel to shift focus from its military offensive in southern Lebanon to a diplomatic solution as soon as possible, while France called on Hezbollah to stop its rocket fire on Israel and accept a ceasefire.

The diplomatic pressure came as Hezbollah fired more than 300 missiles, rockets and drones at Israel over Yom Kippur, Judaism’s holiest day, which ended at nightfall Saturday.

Meanwhile, Israel pushed forward with its military offensive in southern Lebanon, amid mounting international criticism over several incidents where UN peacekeepers were hit.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant during which he “reinforced the need to pivot from military operations in Lebanon to a diplomatic pathway as soon as feasible,” according to the Pentagon statement released early Sunday.

The US readout said that Austin expressed “deep concern” about reports that Israeli forces had fired on UN peacekeeping positions in Lebanon in recent days and urged Israel to ensure safety for them and the Lebanese military.

Gallant told Austin that the incidents were under investigation, and accused Hezbollah of firing from the vicinity of UNIFIL posts intentionally, according to the Israeli readout.

Gallant “emphasized that while facing this significant operational challenge, the IDF will continue to take measures to avoid harm to UNIFIL troops and peacekeeping positions.”

France meanwhile put pressure on Lebanon to curb Hezbollah.

“A ceasefire must be implemented in Lebanon immediately,” French President Emmanuel Macron said Saturday during a talk with Lebanon’s parliament speaker Nabih Berri, adding that Hezbollah strikes must “immediately stop.”

Last week Macron called for an arms embargo on Israel, drawing condemnation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who called it “a disgrace.” The two leaders have since spoken directly by phone.

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said his government would ask the UN Security Council to issue a new resolution calling for a “full and immediate ceasefire.”

Israel has intensified its military operations against Hezbollah in recent weeks after a year of skirmishing amid rocket and drone attacks on the north by the Iran-backed terror group. Strikes have hit Beirut’s southern suburbs and the Beqaa Valley, killing many of Hezbollah’s top leaders, and sending ground troops across the border. Hezbollah for its part has fired rockets deeper into Israel.

Rockets and drones

Hezbollah rocket fire has continued unabated.

Sirens sounded in multiple communities in northern Israel on Sunday, including the port city of Haifa and near the border with Lebanon. The IDF reported that over 40 rockets were fired at the north of the country in the morning. It said five rockets were shot down.

This follows the heavy rocket attacks on Yom Kippur.

“Throughout the weekend of Yom Kippur, approximately 320 projectiles that were fired by the Hezbollah terrorist organization crossed from Lebanon into Israel,” the IDF said in a statement. The figure included rockets and attack drones.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said its paramedics treated three who were lightly hurt by a rocket that exploded in the Western Galilee.

Another 12 people were hurt while running to shelters amid rocket attacks over Yom Kippur, the ambulance service added.

The incoming rockets set off sirens over a wide area, some falling in urban areas and others intercepted or hitting open spaces. One Hezbollah drone hit a retirement home in Herzliya late Friday, causing damage but no injuries. At least one rocket impacted the northern city of Safed, causing damage to vehicles.

The IDF reported that it carried out a total of some 280 strikes on terror targets, including over 200 in Lebanon, where it said soldiers killed 50 Hezbollah fighters in “face-to-face confrontations” over the previous day. It also published footage it said showed how Hezbollah is storing weapons inside civilian homes.

Operating in southern Lebanon, the 8th Brigade Combat Team and the elite LOTAR counter-terror unit uncovered dozens of weapons warehouses in civilian homes, the IDF said.

Footage released by the army showed a cache of mortar shells –- some originating in Israel — mines, Kalashnikov rifles, magazines and combat vests. The army said they also found Kornet anti-tank missiles, and that the caches were meant for Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force as they suited up for a planned invasion of northern Israel.

IDF footage of one of the many Hezbollah weapons warehouses uncovered in civilian homes by the 8th BCT.

(Note the mortar shells with Hebrew writing on the case) pic.twitter.com/Z4T5mOnRPG

— Lazar Berman (@Lazar_Berman) October 13, 2024

The troops, who conducted significant operations against Hamas in Gaza over the past year, are operating under the 91st Division on the eastern edge of IDF ground operations in southern Lebanon.

“The forces conduct face-to-face battles, eliminate terrorists and destroy terrorist infrastructure that Hezbollah has deployed along the border,” according to the IDF.

The brigade found tunnel infrastructure inside one of the villages, including living quarters for Hezbollah fighters. The IDF said that the troops had killed “many” Hezbollah fighters by directing air strikes from the ground.

As part of the operations in Lebanon, the IDF said that it struck “underground infrastructure” where the Iran-backed organization was storing arms along the border with Syria.

The IDF also declared a closed military zone around several Western Galilee communities along the border with Lebanon, where Israeli forces are currently operating against Hezbollah.

A military decree stresses a total ban on entry to the towns of Zarit, Shomera, Shtula, Netuya and Even Menachem.

Such measures since late September have preceded ground operations inside Lebanon.

Easing restrictions

However, the IDF Home Front Command announced it was easing restrictions imposed along the northern border and the Golan Heights, with educational activities now allowed in communities there. Many children are on a break anyway ahead of the Sukkoth holiday which begins on Wednesday night.

A Home Front Command statement said restrictions were also being loosened in the northern communities of Daliyat al-Karmel and Isfiya, where residents can now hold events with up to 2,000 people.

On Sunday, Hezbollah claimed a series of rocket strikes on Israeli military positions and said fighters engaged an Israeli infantry unit attempting to enter Lebanese territory.

Hezbollah said it clashed twice with Israeli troops who attempted to infiltrate near a Lebanese border village on Sunday and claimed several other attacks overnight.

Hezbollah fighters detonated explosive devices at Israeli soldiers and “clashed with them as they attempted to infiltrate” twice near the Lebanese village of Ramyah, the group said, reporting fighting that lasted about an hour. The group also claimed attacks on Israeli troops in Lebanon and on the Israeli side of the border.

In 2019, the IDF revealed “the longest and most significant” cross-border Hezbollah attack tunnel that was discovered during Operation Northern Shield. The subterranean passageway began close to Ramyah.

UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, said on Saturday its position in the southern Lebanese town of Ramyah had sustained significant damage due to explosions following nearby shelling but did not specify who was responsible for the attack.

Meanwhile, The Islamic Resistance in Iraq said in a statement it had targeted an Israeli military site in the Golan Heights with drones as part of its support of the Palestinian people and Lebanon. It said it would continue escalating attacks against Israel.

The military said the air force successfully intercepted a “suspicious aerial target” — likely a drone — that crossed from Lebanon earlier in the morning.

The army said no alerts were activated in Israeli communities during the infiltration, which happened off the coast of Nahariya.

חיל האוויר יירט לפני זמן קצר מטרה אווירית חשודה שחצתה מלבנון לעבר שטח הארץ, במרחב הימי מול חופי נהריה.
לא הופעלו התרעות על פי מדיניות pic.twitter.com/QySKkE00IU

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) October 13, 2024

Ambulances to transport gunmen and weapons

The Israeli military also said that Hezbollah was using ambulances to transport fighters and weapons and that it would take any necessary action.

Two hospitals in the Beqaa Valley, a stronghold area of Hezbollah, sustained damage from Israeli strikes on Saturday, the hospitals said. There were no casualties, they added.

Israeli airstrikes on Saturday hit multiple areas in southern and eastern Lebanon, killing more than a dozen people and causing damage to hospitals, the Lebanese health ministry reported.

Nine people were killed in the Maisra village in the northeast, with 15 wounded, the ministry says. Four people were killed and 18 wounded in an apartment building on the edge of Barja south of Beirut.

The ministry did not detail how many were terror operatives.

It said Rayak and Tal Chiha hospitals in the Beqaa Valley were damaged, while seven people were wounded in strikes on Brital and Temnine in the Baalbek-Hermel province. In Nabatieh, eight people were wounded.

Beirut’s southern suburbs, which have previously faced heavy bombardment, have not been struck in the past 48 hours. Hezbollah functions as a state within a state there.

War began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas led a devastating cross-border attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. The next day Hezbollah began attacking along the northern border saying it was acting in support of Gaza.

The total toll in Lebanon over the past year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah is now 2,255 killed and over 10,000 wounded, according to the ministry. More than 1,400 people have been killed since mid-September. It isn’t clear how many were fighters.

Hezbollah has named 516 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. Another 94 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 a new offensive against Hezbollah in September, including a ground operation in which the military says at least 450 Hezbollah operatives have been killed.

Hezbollah’s attacks on northern Israel over the last year have resulted in the deaths of 28 civilians. In addition, 33 IDF soldiers and reservists have died in cross-border skirmishes and in the ensuing ground operation launched in southern Lebanon in late September.