By Maya Gebeily, Alexander Cornwell and Jana Choukeir
BEIRUT/JERUSALEM, March 3 (Reuters) – Lebanon was pulled deeper into the war in the Middle East on Tuesday as the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah launched missiles at Israel for a second consecutive day and Israel sent troops into the south and carried out waves of air strikes.
Israel’s neighbour to the north and the theatre of numerous conflicts between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon had avoided spillover from the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran until Monday, when Hezbollah opened fire with drones and missiles.
With dozens of people killed in retaliatory airstrikes, Hezbollah’s move to enter the conflict has sharpened long-standing divisions in Lebanon over its status as an armed group – the only Lebanese faction to keep its weapons after the 1975-90 civil war.
The government on Monday took the unprecedented step of outlawing Hezbollah’s military activities. The pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar newspaper on Tuesday condemned this as a “capitulation to dictates, which could even lead to the outbreak of civil war”.
Towers of smoke rose from the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut as Israel launched new airstrikes.
Many thousands of Lebanese have fled homes in areas that bore the brunt of a major war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2024. The United Nations said that, by Monday, an estimated 29,000 people, including 9,000 children, had fled.
ISRAELI INCURSIONS
The Israeli military said it had deployed additional forces to southern Lebanon overnight, saying this was to take up defensive positions to guard against any potential Hezbollah attack.
“We’re only at the border line area in a defensive manner to prevent attacks against civilians and very strategic important points,” Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said.
Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement he had authorised the military to advance and take control of additional positions.
The Israeli military on Monday night ordered residents of the entire border strip of southern Lebanon to evacuate.
A Lebanese security source said Israeli troops were carrying out incursions along some parts of the border. Witnesses said the Lebanese army had pulled out of at least seven forward-operating positions along the border.
Israel kept some troops in the south at several hilltop positions following a ceasefire in the 2024 war.
The south, predominantly Shi’ite Muslim, has long been a key Hezbollah stronghold, where it has drawn political support and deployed weaponry ahead of the 2024 conflict. The Lebanese army has moved into the area and seized its weapons caches since that conflict, from which Hezbollah emerged greatly weakened.
Hezbollah announced three separate attacks on Tuesday using attack drones and missiles and saying these had targeted military facilities in northern Israel.
ROCKET HITS HOUSE IN ISRAEL
A missile from Lebanon hit a house in northern Israel, Israeli media reported. Israel’s ambulance service said a man was treated for glass shrapnel injuries.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said rockets fired at Israel on Monday from Lebanon came from outside the southern border zone where the army declared its control in January.
The Lebanese health ministry on Monday reported that 52 people had been killed in Israeli attacks in Lebanon and more than 150 wounded. It has not issued an update on Tuesday.
Overnight, an Israeli airstrike hit the headquarters of Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV in Beirut.
The Israeli military reported more airstrikes in Beirut on Tuesday, saying it had hit “command centres, weapons storage facilities, and satellite communication components belonging to Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in Beirut”.
“These assets were operating under civilian cover,” it said.
The Israeli military said it had taken steps to mitigate civilian harm, including the use of advanced warnings.
(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell in Jerusalem, Maya Gebeily in Beirut, Tala Ramadan, Jana Choukeir and Ahmed Elimam in Dubai; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Alex Richardson)
