Hezbollah says it targeted Israeli soldiers’ movements in southern Lebanon

By Mohammed Ragawi

BEIRUT (AA) - Hezbollah said late Monday that it targeted Israeli soldiers' movements near the towns of Odaisseh and Kfarkela in southern Lebanon, claiming “confirmed hits.”

In a statement posted on Telegram, the group said its fighters “targeted movements of Israeli enemy soldiers in the orchards near Odaisseh and Kfarkela with appropriate weapons.”

In a subsequent statement, the group announced that it targeted “an Israeli force at the gate of the Shtula settlement in the Upper Galilee, northern Israel, with artillery shells, achieving a direct hit.”

The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that the army said that after sirens sounded in Shtula, three rockets were detected and landed in an open area.

Earlier Monday, Israeli army radio reported that more than 100 rockets had been fired from Lebanon toward northern Israel since the morning, with some igniting fires in the Afek settlement in Western Galilee.

The Maariv newspaper reported that Israel’s security cabinet officially approved a ground operation in southern Lebanon.

In a related development, the Israeli army launched airstrikes on three areas in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Monday evening, just minutes after issuing urgent evacuation orders for the areas in the Lebanese capital.

Earlier, Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee posted an “urgent warning to the residents of the southern suburbs of Beirut” on his account on the X platform, sharing maps of buildings where he urged residents and those in nearby structures to evacuate.

The evacuation orders targeted the neighborhoods of Laylaki, Haret Hreik and Burj al-Barajneh.

Adraee claimed the buildings were “near Hezbollah-affiliated facilities and sites,” adding “the Israeli army will act against them with force.”

Since Sept. 23, Israel has launched massive airstrikes against what it calls Hezbollah targets across Lebanon, killing more than 960 people and injuring over 2,770 others, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

Several Hezbollah leaders have been killed in the assault, including the group’s Secretary General, Hassan Nasrallah.

Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in cross-border warfare since the start of Israel's war on Gaza, which has killed nearly 41,600 people, most of them women and children, following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas last October.

The international community has warned that Israeli attacks in Lebanon could escalate the Gaza conflict into a wider regional war.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio