IDF tanks gather on Lebanon border as fears of all-out war skyrocket
Israeli tanks are lining up along the Lebanon border as fears surge over a ground invasion that could lead to an all-out war.
It comes as Hamas said an Israeli strike killed its leader in Lebanon on Monday, while another Palestinian militant group said three of its leaders were killed in a strike on Beirut, the first attack within the city limits.
Hamas said its leader in Lebanon, Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin was killed, along with his wife, son, and daughter, in a strike that targeted their house in a Palestinian refugee camp in the southern city of Tyre.
Israel’s increasing frequency of attacks against the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon and the Houthi militia in Yemen have prompted fears that Middle East fighting could spiral and draw in Iran and the United States.
In Lebanon, authorities said at least 105 people had been killed by Israeli air strikes on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the Houthi-run Health Ministry said at least four people were killed and 29 wounded in airstrikes on Yemen’s port of Hodeidah, which Israel said were a response to Houthi missile attacks.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry has said more than 1,000 Lebanese have been killed and 6,000 wounded in the past two weeks, without saying how many were civilians. The government said a million people, a fifth of the population, have fled their homes.
Israel has vowed to keep up the assault and says it wants to make its northern areas secure again for residents who have been forced to flee Hezbollah rocket attacks.
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Many of Israel’s attacks have been carried out in the south of Lebanon, where the Iran-backed Hezbollah has most of its operations, or Beirut’s southern suburbs.
The attack in the Kola district appeared to be the first strike within Beirut’s city limits. Syrians living in southern Lebanon who had fled Israeli bombardment had been sleeping under a bridge in the neighbourhood for days, residents of the area said.
Israeli drones hovered over Beirut for much of Sunday, with the loud blasts of new airstrikes echoing around the Lebanese capital.
Displaced families spent the night on benches at Zaitunay Bay, a string of restaurants and cafes on Beirut’s waterfront.
The United States has urged a diplomatic resolution to the conflict in Lebanon but has also authorised its military to reinforce in the region.
President Joe Biden, asked if an all-out war in the Middle East could be avoided, said “It has to be.” He said he would be talking to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.