Lebanese army says its forces deployed across Lebanon amid Israeli attacks

By Anadolu staff

BEIRUT (AA) - The Lebanese army said Tuesday that its forces are deployed across Lebanon, including the country’s south amid Israeli air and ground attacks.

In a statement, the army said its forces “are fully ready to defend the Lebanese territory within the available means, based on decisions and directives of the political authorities.”

The military statement was issued after accusations emerged on social media platforms for the army of withdrawing its forces from southern Lebanon following Israeli air and ground attacks.

The army called the accusations “campaigns of slander” to serve “narrow interests and political goals.”

The army said its priority is “to protect the (military) institution, maintain its cohesion, stop the aggression, address the displacement crisis, continue rescue operations, and preserve civil peace and internal stability.”

Israel has mounted massive airstrikes across Lebanon against what it claims Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23, killing more than 1,250 people, injuring 3,618 others, and displacing more than 1.2 million people.

The aerial campaign was an escalation in yearlong cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of Tel Aviv’s brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip that has killed nearly 42,000 people, mostly women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.

Despite international warnings that the Middle East region was on the brink of a regional war amid Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, Tel Aviv expanded the conflict by launching on Oct. 1 a ground invasion into southern Lebanon.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar in Ankara