Netanyahu threatens Lebanon with destruction ‘like Gaza’

JERUSALEM/BEIRUT: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Lebanon Tuesday (Oct 8) it could face destruction “like Gaza” as Israel ramps up its ground offensive against Hezbollah along the southern section of the Lebanese coast.
Netanyahu’s stark warning came as the Israeli military deployed more troops and urged civilians in coastal areas to evacuate.
“You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza,” Netanyahu said in a video address directed to the people of Lebanon.
“I say to you, the people of Lebanon: Free your country from Hezbollah so that this war can end.”Hezbollah earlier said it fired rockets at the Israeli port city of Haifa, after the Israeli military reported 85 projectiles crossing from Lebanon.
Israel expanded operations in Lebanon nearly a year after Hezbollah began exchanging fire in support of its ally, Hamas, following the Palestinian group’s deadly attack on Israel on Oct 7, 2023.
While the coast has not been spared, Israel’s latest evacuation warning suggests it is extending its offensive northwards.
On its Telegram channel, the Israeli military said its 146th Division began “limited, localised, targeted operational activities” against Hezbollah targets and infrastructure in southwestern Lebanon.
A day earlier, the military had warned people to stay away from the southern part of Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast, with a spokesman saying Israel would “soon operate in the maritime area against Hezbollah’s terrorist activities” south of the Awali river.
In Sidon, fishermen stayed ashore and the seafood market was unusually quiet.
Hezbollah’s deputy leader said despite Israel’s “painful” strikes, the group’s leadership structure was in order and its military capabilities were “fine”.
“Netanyahu says he wants to bring back” the displaced to their homes in northern Israel, Qassem said.
But “we say that many more residents will be forced to flee” their homes, he warned.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant later said Hezbollah “is a battered and broken organisation, without significant command and fire capabilities, with a disintegrated leadership following the elimination of Hassan Nasrallah”.
Weakened but not crushed after a year of war, Hamas was defiant, with Abu Obeida, spokesman for Hamas’s armed wing, saying the group would “keep up the fight in a long war of attrition, one that is painful and costly for the enemy”.
He said scores of people taken hostage into Gaza last year were enduring a “very difficult” situation.
A senior Hamas official has acknowledged “several thousand fighters from the movement and other resistance groups died in combat”.