January 2, 2024

Israeli military says it struck ‘series’ of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon

By Dan Williams
Updated January 2, 2024 — 7.13amfirst published at 5.41am
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Jerusalem: Israel is withdrawing some forces from Gaza to shift to more targeted operations against Hamas, and is partially returning reservists to civilian life to help the economy as the war looks set to last well into the new year, an Israeli official said.

The official said toppling the Islamist faction remained an objective of the offensive in the Palestinian enclave, and that some of the five brigades withdrawn would prepare for a possible flare-up of a second front against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Israeli military vehicles move back from the Gaza Strip in Israel.Credit: Getty

Asked by reporters about a troop reduction, Israel’s military spokesperson said two reservist brigades would be released this week.

Since launching the war in retaliation for the cross-border Hamas rampage of October 7, Israeli officials have said they would wage it in three main stages. The first was intense shelling to clear access routes for ground forces and encourage civilians to evacuate. The second was the invasion that began on October 27.

With tanks and troops having now overrun much of the Gaza Strip, largely asserting control despite Palestinian gunmen continuing their ambushes from hidden tunnels and bunkers, the military is moving to the third stage, said the official, who could not be named given the sensitivity of the issue.

An Israeli helicopter flies a long the border as smoke is rising from the Gaza Strip .Credit: Getty

“This will take six months at least, and involve intense mopping-up missions against the terrorists. No one is talking about doves of peace being flown from Shajaia,” the official told Reuters, referring to a Gaza district ravaged by fighting.

US pressure

In addition to the 1200 people killed on October 7, Hamas took some 240 hostages. Israel is also determined to recover the 129 still held in Gaza. Qatari and Egyptian-mediated truce efforts have raised the prospect of some of them being freed.

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Israel’s shift appeared to correspond to pressure from its top ally, the United States, to review tactics and do more to protect non-combatants.

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US President Joe Biden spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Israel’s objectives and the phasing of its military operations in Gaza on December 23, the White House said.

Biden also underscored the need to protect civilian lives and secure the release of hostages being held by the Hamas Islamist militant group, it said.

The US has kept up its support for Israel while expressing concern over the growing casualty toll and humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

US officials have urged Israel to shift its military operations in Gaza to a lower-intensity phase that would include more targeted operations focused on the Hamas leadership and its infrastructure.

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Israel initially drafted 300,000 reservists – some 10 per cent to 15 per cent of its workforce – for what looks set to be its longest-ever war. Government sources have said between 200,000 and 250,000 reservists were still mobilised and absent from jobs or studies.

Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the deployment of reservists would be crafted “in a way that it can be refreshed, the Israeli economy can function, families who are waiting for their loved ones can return to their routines”.

Local media have reported that several military divisions were deployed throughout Gaza.

The official added that some of the troops pulled out of Gaza in the south would be prepared for rotation to the northern border with Lebanon, where Hezbollah has been exchanging fire with Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians.

Lebanon border

The Israeli military said on Monday it had struck a series of targets in Lebanon, including Hezbollah military sites.

It said that earlier five soldiers were wounded by cross-border fire from Lebanon.

The military said that its troops and aircraft had “struck a series of targets in Lebanon, including terrorist infrastructure, military sites in which Hezbollah terrorists were operating, and launch posts.”

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group said on its Telegram account on Monday that three of its fighters were killed in southern Lebanon.

The statement gave no detail about how the three were killed but said they “were martyred on the road to (liberate) Jerusalem”.

Black smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike on the outskirts of Aita al-Shaab, a Lebanese border village in November.Credit: AP

Security sources said they were killed in an Israeli raid on two houses in the Lebanese village of Kafr Kila near the border where Hezbollah maintains security control.

Israel has warned that, if Hezbollah does not back down, a full-on Lebanon war looms. Both Hamas and Hezbollah are backed by Iran, whose militant allies in Syria, Iraq and Yemen have also been carrying out longer-range attacks against Israel.

“The situation on the Lebanese front will not be allowed to continue. This coming six-month period is a critical moment,” the official said, adding that Israel would convey a similar message to a US envoy conducting shuttle missions to Beirut.

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In Gaza, the Israel-Hamas war has inflicted unprecedented devastation, with the health ministry reporting almost 22,000 fatalities, many of them civilian.

Israel says it has killed more than 8000 Palestinian fighters – suggesting that, by its own accounting, Hamas retains core personnel. Pre-war Israeli assessment were that the group had around 30,000 fighters.

The Israeli military announced on Saturday it was sending some reservists home as part of what top commander Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevi has deemed a “reconfiguration” of forces.

“From the first moments of this war, we said it would take long,” Halevi told troops on Tuesday. “Will we ultimately be able to say there are no more foes around the State of Israel? I think that is overly ambitious. But we will deliver a different security situation – safe and, as much as possible, stable too.”

Israel has listed 174 soldiers – many of them reservists – as killed in Gaza fighting and nine on the Lebanese border.

The Gaza war was triggered by a surprise Hamas attack on Israeli towns on October 7 that Israel says killed 1200 people. Palestinian health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza say Israel’s offensive there has killed more than 21,978 people and wounded many thousands more. Israel says it has killed approximately 8000 Hamas militants since the war began.

Reuters

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