Israel steps up Lebanon strikes as Netanyahu escalates offensive

JERUSALEM – The Israeli army intensified strikes in southern Lebanon on May 25, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the military to escalate its offensive in Lebanon in an effort to “crush” Hezbollah.

The air strikes come as the United States and Iran seek to finalise the terms of an agreement to end the Middle East conflict, which could include the Lebanon front, where Israel and Hezbollah have waged war since March 2.

Despite a ceasefire that came into effect on April 17, Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah have continued to exchange fire on a near-daily basis.

“I have ordered an even greater acceleration of our operations,” Mr Netanyahu said in a video statement posted on his Telegram channel.

“It is true that they are attacking us with drones, including fibre-optic drones, but we have teams working on countermeasures, and we will solve this issue... We will intensify our blows, increase our firepower, and we will crush them.”

Following the call for escalation, an AFP correspondent saw residents fleeing the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold.

The Israeli air force carried out successive strikes in the Bekaa valley in eastern Lebanon on the evening of May 25, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA).

Dozens of Israeli strikes earlier targeted several towns and villages in southern Lebanon in the early hours, killing three people in two cars and on a motorcycle, NNA reported.

Israeli air strikes then targeted several towns near the ancient city of Tyre, according to the state-run agency.

Those strikes came after Israel issued evacuation orders for 10 villages, accusing Hezbollah of breaching the truce.

“In light of Hezbollah’s violation of the ceasefire agreement, the Israel Defense Forces are compelled to operate against it with force,” the military’s Arabic-language spokesman, Colonel Avichay Adraee, said in a social media post, listing the names of the villages.

Hezbollah, a Lebanese Iran-backed movement, has regularly launched drone attacks against Israeli forces inside Lebanese territory and across the border, including several on May 25.

The group late on May 25 said that it had targeted three barracks and a military post in northern Israel “in response to the violation of the ceasefire” by the Jewish state.

According to the Lebanese authorities, Israeli strikes since early March have killed more than 3,100 people.

The Israeli military also announced on May 25 that a soldier had been killed the previous day in southern Lebanon.

That brings the number of Israeli soldiers killed since the outbreak of hostilities with Hezbollah to 23. One civilian contractor has also been killed.

‘Buildings must fall’

Two far-right ministers called for an expansion of Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon.

“There is an urgent need to put an end to the threat posed by Hezbollah’s explosive drones,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who lives in an occupied West Bank settlement, said on Telegram.

“For every explosive drone strike, 10 buildings must fall in Beirut.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, another figurehead of the Israeli far-right, called for a “return to intensive warfare” and for “taking control” of the Zahrani River, located further north than the Litani River.

The Israeli army, which controls a strip of land approximately 10km deep in Lebanese territory, has designated the Litani River as the boundary of the area to be cleared of Hezbollah fighters.

On May 25, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun defended his decision to hold talks with Israel, adding that his demand for a complete Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon was “non-negotiable”.

Lebanon and Israel, which do not have diplomatic relations, are holding another round of negotiations in Washington on June 2 and 3, preceded by a meeting of military officials from both countries at the Pentagon on May 29.

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem reiterated his opposition to direct negotiations between Lebanon and Israel on the evening of May 24 and repeated his refusal to have his movement to disarm. AFP