Israel Launches Ground Operation in Lebanon; Hezbollah Fires Rockets at Haifa, Israel Strikes Beirut Suburbs

Israeli forces conducted strikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Monday after Hezbollah fired rockets that reached the outskirts of Haifa, according to reports citing both sides. The previous day Israeli ground troops advanced to their deepest point inside Lebanon in 26 years.

Hezbollah also targeted Israeli positions near the Litani River and in Tiberias. An Israeli airstrike on Monday afternoon damaged Jabal Amel Hospital in the port city of Tyre.

A wave of overnight bombardments across southern Lebanon killed six people, according to the National News Agency. Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said the United Nations is deeply alarmed by the escalation in military activities across southern Lebanon and beyond. He urged all actors to respect the cessation of hostilities and avoid further escalation.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz stated that if there is no calm in the north, there will be no calm in Beirut. A source close to Hezbollah told AFP that the group has not committed to stop attacking northern Israel and questioned why it should halt strikes while Israel continues to bombard Lebanon.

Washington had proposed a clear sequence in which Hezbollah would stop all attacks on Israel in return for Israel refraining from escalation in Beirut.

Hezbollah agreed to halt attacks when the ceasefire was signed in mid-April but resumed them after subsequent Israeli strikes. Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned that crossing red lines in Lebanon and Gaza would mean direct war and said they are determined to carry out defensive operations by opening new fronts while preserving the Strait of Hormuz equation.

Mohsen Rezaee, a military adviser to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, posted that the escalation of tensions in Lebanon will not be tolerated and that the patience of Iran's armed forces has a limit.