At least 10 firefighters have tragically lost their lives due to an Israeli airstrike in the southern border region of Lebanon, according to the Lebanese health ministry. The attack occurred while the firefighters were preparing for rescue missions from a municipal building in Baraachit during the night.
Rescue operations are currently underway, as teams search for individuals trapped under the debris. While the Israeli military has not made an immediate statement regarding this incident, they did confirm that fighter jets targeted sites associated with the armed group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon in their overnight operations.
Reports indicate that Israeli aircraft struck over 30 towns and villages surrounding the southern coastal city of Tyre. Eyewitnesses noted that some locations hit were in the hills near the Israeli border, while at least one strike impacted a densely populated area of the city. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced extensive military operations against Hezbollah in the region while also conducting targeted strikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
The scope of the Israeli ground invasion in southern Lebanon appears to be expanding, with the IDF revealing that a third division has joined operations launched six days ago aimed at dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure close to the border. Furthermore, another 20 communities in the south have been ordered to evacuate, including the key coastal town of Naqoura, which serves as headquarters for UN peacekeepers in Lebanon.
Intense Israeli military actions and airstrikes in Lebanon have resulted in over 1,400 casualties in the past three weeks, including 22 on Sunday alone, and have displaced approximately 1.2 million people, as reported by local authorities. Despite suffering significant losses, including the deaths of its leader and many top military commanders, Hezbollah remains defiant, asserting its capability to resist Israeli offensives.
Hezbollah launched rockets targeting the northern Israeli cities of Haifa and Tiberias on Monday, which resulted in damages and injuries. The IDF reported that a total of 135 rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israeli territory that day, with damage reported in the Lower Galilee region between Haifa and Tiberias.
With Hezbollah classified as a terrorist organization by Israel’s government, authorities have committed to ensuring the safety of displaced residents so they can return home after a protracted period of conflict driven by the recent Gaza war. Hostilities have intensified since Hezbollah initiated rocket fire into northern Israel in solidarity with Palestinians following Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on October 8, 2023.
During a cabinet meeting on Monday, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emphasized the necessity of counteractions against what he termed “Iran’s axis of evil” to safeguard the nation’s future and ensure security.
