Smoke billows over southern Lebanon following Israeli strikes, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Tyre, southern Lebanon September 23, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The Israeli military on Monday (September 23, 2024) told people in Lebanon to move away from Hezbollah targets and vowed to carry out more “extensive and precise” strikes against the Iran-backed group.

“We advise civilians from Lebanese villages located in and next to buildings and areas used by Hezbollah for military purposes, such as those used to store weapons, to immediately move out of harm’s way for their own safety,” military spokesman Reard Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a media briefing, in a rare appeal made by the Israeli military to the people of Lebanon.

“The IDF (military) will engage in (more) extensive and precise strikes against terror targets which have been embedded widely throughout Lebanon,” Mr. Hagar has stated.

Mr. Hagari said the military had launched new strikes against Hezbollah sites since Monday (September 23, 2024) morning.

“The strikes will go on for the near future,” he said.

Dozens of Israeli air strike hit Lebanon’s south and east on Monday (September 23, 2024), official media said.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency said “enemy warplanes launched… more than 80 air strikes in half an hour”, targeting areas in south Lebanon, at the same time as “intense raids in the Bekaa” Valley area in east Lebanon.

Lebanese Army soldiers stand guard at the barriered area of the scene of an Israeli strike that targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs a day earlier, as search and rescue operations continue on September 21, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said on Saturday (September 21, 2024) that a second senior commander was among 15 of its fighters killed in an Israeli air strike on its Beirut stronghold the previous day.

The Iran-backed group said Ahmed Mahmud Wahbi led the military operations of its elite Radwan Force in support of Hamas between October 7 when the Palestinian militant group attacked Israel, triggering the Gaza war, and the start of this year.

The Israeli military said that its air strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Friday (September 20, 2024) eliminated Radwan Force chief Ibrahim Aqil and several other commanders.