By Abdelraouf Arnaout
JERUSALEM (AA) - The Israeli army said Monday it deployed a new division for its ongoing ground operation in southern Lebanon.
A military statement said the army’s 91st Galilee Division, which includes the 3rd and 8th Reserve Brigades and the Northern Nahal Brigade 228, was dispatched into southern Lebanon.
“Since the beginning of the war, the 91st Division has conducted a significant amount of offensive and defensive operations in order to degrade and strike the Hezbollah terrorist organization and its infrastructure in southern Lebanon, using ground and aerial strikes,” the statement said.
In recent days, the Israeli army announced the deployment of its 98th and 36th divisions in southern Lebanon as part of its broader offensive there.
Israel has been conducting relentless airstrikes since Sept. 23 against what it calls Hezbollah targets across Lebanon, killing more than 1,200 people and injuring over 3,400 others. Tel Aviv also started a ground invasion of southern Lebanon on Oct. 1.
The military campaign was an escalation in a year-long conflict between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of Tel Aviv’s brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip that has killed nearly 42,000 victims, mostly women and children, since a Hamas attack in October of last year.
Due to Israeli attacks on Lebanon, at least 2,036 people have since been killed, over 9,500 injured, and 1.2 million others displaced, according to Lebanese authorities.
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 Mohammad Sio in Istanbul