Beirut
\nIsrael expanded its targets in its aggression in Lebanon on Monday, killing at least 18 people in its first strike on the Christian-majority town of Aitou in the north, the Lebanese Red Cross said.
\nSo far the main focus of Israel\u2019s military operations in Lebanon has been in the south, the eastern Bekaa Valley and the suburbs of Beirut.
\nThe strike in the northern region hit a house that had been rented to displaced families, Aitou Mayor Joseph Trad told Reuters. In addition to the deaths, four people were injured, the Red Cross said. Israel on Monday ordered residents of 25 villages to evacuate to areas north of the Awali River, which flows through southern Lebanon, as it intensifies its attacks in the region. An Israeli strike killed Muhammad Kamel Naim, the commander of the anti-tank missile unit of Hezbollah\u2019s elite Radwan Force, in the Nabatieh area of south Lebanon, the military claimed. Hezbollah has not immediately commented.
\nThe operations come amidst high tensions between Israel and the UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL in south Lebanon, with Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen on Monday repeating a call by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the UN troops to leave.
\nIsrael and the United Nations have been trading accusations over the peacekeepers in south Lebanon, as Israel keeps pushing its forces through the area in an attempt to wipe out Hezbollah and its military infrastructure while it battles Hamas in Gaza.
\nThe UN said Israeli tanks had burst into its base on Sunday, the latest allegations of Israeli violations against peacekeeping forces, that have been condemned by Hezbollah and by Israel\u2019s allies.
\nIsrael disputed the UN account and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for the peacekeepers to withdraw, saying they were providing \u201chuman shields\u201d for Hezbollah during an upsurge in hostilities.
\nHezbollah denies it uses the proximity of peacekeepers for protection.
\nThe Middle East, meanwhile, remains on high alert for Israel to retaliate against Iran for an October 1 barrage of long-range missiles launched in response to Israel\u2019s assaults on Lebanon.
\nThe Pentagon said on Sunday it would send US troops to Israel along with an advanced US anti-missile system, as Israel weighs its expected retaliation against Iran.
\nThe Israeli military took foreign journalists into southern Lebanon on Sunday and showed them a Hezbollah tunnel shaft that was less than 200 metres away (650 feet) from a UNIFIL position, as well as weapon stashes that the troops found.
\nBrigadier General Yiftach Norkin said the tunnels were built a few years ago.
\n\u201cWe are actually standing in a military base of Hezbollah very close to the to the UN,\u201d Norkin said, pointing to the shaft\u2019s trap door in an area covered by undergrowth and overlooked by a UN observation post.
\nSince announcing its ground operation near the border, the Israeli military says that it has destroyed dozens of Hezbollah tunnel shafts, rocket launchers and command posts.
\n\u201cWe found several days ago a huge quantity of weapons originally coming from Iran and Russia. Brand new,\u201d said Colonel Olivier Rafowicz. \u201cThey were prepared for attacking us and (launching) a large invasion into the north of Israel,\u201d Rafowicz said, showing the journalists crates of weapons.
\nReuters could not immediately verify these claims.
\nExtensive tunnel network
\nHezbollah possesses an extensive tunnel network in southern Lebanon, both the group and Israel say. Israel estimates they extend for hundreds of kilometres. A Hezbollah field commander told Reuters last week that the tunnels \u201care the foundation of the battle.\u201d Hezbollah has not immediately commented.
\nUNIFIL has said previous Israeli attacks on a watchtower, cameras, communications equipment and lighting had limited its monitoring abilities. UN sources say they fear any violations of international law in the conflict will be impossible to monitor.
\nThe European Union\u2019s member states have taken too long to condemn Israel\u2019s attacks on UNIFIL soldiers in Lebanon, the European Union\u2019s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday, describing the attacks as \u201ccompletely unacceptable\u201d.
\nEU countries, led by Italy, France and Spain, have thousands of troops in the 10,000-strong peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, which has said it has repeatedly come under attack from Israeli forces in recent days
\nOn Monday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez urged European Union members to respond to a request by Madrid and Ireland to suspend the bloc\u2019s free trade agreement with Israel over its attacks in Lebanon and Gaza.
\nThe conflict between Israel and Hezbollah resumed a year ago when the Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israeli positions in support of Gaza and has sharply escalated in recent weeks.
\nIsrael says its operations in Lebanon are aimed at securing the return of tens of thousands of its residents displaced from their homes in northern Israel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Beirut Israel expanded its targets in its aggression in Lebanon on Monday, killing at least 18 people in its first strike on the Christian-majority town of Aitou in the north, the Lebanese Red Cross said. So far the main focus of Israel\u2019s military operations in Lebanon has been in the south, the eastern Bekaa Valley …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":71600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71630"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71647,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71630\/revisions\/71647"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}