BBCIsrael has invaded southern Lebanon in a dramatic escalation of its battle with Hezbollah.
The Israeli floor operation started on Monday evening, days after an air strike killed Hassan Nasrallah, the chief of the Iran-backed armed group.
Hezbollah has fired rockets into northern Israel as Lebanon has endured two weeks of aerial bombardment that Lebanese authorities say has killed greater than 1,000 folks and compelled as much as 1,000,000 to flee their properties.
Israel has a decades-long historical past of battle with Hezbollah however the warfare in Gaza has sparked a yr of lethal cross-border preventing between them.
We might be regularly updating maps on this web page to assist clarify the battle.
Map: The place is Lebanon?
Lebanon is a small nation with a inhabitants of about 5.5 million folks, which borders Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. It’s about 170km (105 miles) away from Cyprus.
The place is the Israeli advance?
Israeli troops and tanks that had gathered near the border crossed into Lebanon on Tuesday however it’s unclear precisely the place they’re working.
The Israel Protection Forces (IDF) has stated it’s finishing up “restricted, localised, and focused floor raids” in southern Lebanon to dismantle what it calls Hezbollah’s “terrorist infrastructure”.
ReutersIsraeli troops are preventing instantly with Hezbollah fighters on the bottom, in accordance with the BBC’s Nick Beake who’s in northern Israel.
A number of Israeli troopers have been killed in mortar assaults and ambushes by Hezbollah throughout operations in southern Lebanon geared toward “eliminating terrorists,” in accordance with the IDF.
Hezbollah stated its fighters had clashed with Israeli forces in Adaisseh, Kafr Kila, Maroun al-Ras and Yaroun – all Lebanese villages near the border with Israel.
A floor operation in southern Lebanon comes with many dangers for Israeli forces. In contrast to the flat coastal plains of Gaza, southern Lebanon has rolling hills and a few mountainous terrain that makes it tough for tanks to maneuver simply with out concern of being ambushed.
Hezbollah can be thought to have a community of tunnels within the area, with the group having been getting ready for one more full-scale battle with Israel for the reason that 34-day warfare in 2006.
As a part of its invasion of southern Lebanon, the IDF has ordered folks dwelling in some villages to evacuate, telling these remaining to go away their properties and “instantly head to the north of the Awali River” – which meets the coast about 50km (30 miles) from the border with Israel.
Lebanese civilians have additionally been warned by the IDF to not use automobiles to journey south throughout the Litani River, situated about 30km (20 miles) north of the border.
About 1,000,000 folks lived in southern Lebanon earlier than the battle escalated virtually a yr in the past.
Tens of hundreds have been fleeing north since Israeli air strikes within the area intensified in late September. The principle route for civilians making an attempt to go away the south is the coastal street that runs the size of the nation – however areas alongside that route have been hit by air strikes in current days.
What have Israel’s air strikes focused?
Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon got here after practically two weeks of intense air strikes that Israel’s navy says goal Hezbollah within the south of the nation, the japanese Bekaa Valley and the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Israel says it’s hitting Hezbollah websites, together with weapons shops and ammunition dumps, however Lebanese officers say greater than 100 ladies and kids have been killed.
Nearly all of the rockets lately fired by Hezbollah have focused northern areas of Israel. However some rockets have reached additional south and broken properties close to the coastal metropolis of Haifa.
There was virtually a yr of cross-border hostilities between Israel’s forces and Hezbollah, sparked by the warfare in Gaza.
Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets at northern Israel throughout that point, forcing some Israelis dwelling there to flee south, whereas the IDF has launched air strikes and artillery hearth towards Hezbollah positions in Lebanon.
Because the chart beneath reveals, the variety of weekly Israeli assaults on Lebanon greater than tripled within the week earlier than the IDF launched its floor invasion. The variety of Hezbollah assaults, whereas small compared, additionally elevated in the identical week.
Israel has intensified strikes on Beirut, the capital of Lebanon.
Nearly all of the strikes have hit Dahieh, a southern suburb of the town that could be a densely populated space house to hundreds of civilians.
The suburb has a powerful Hezbollah presence and a collection of Israeli strikes on buildings within the space killed Hezbollah’s chief Hassan Nasrallah on 27 September.
There have additionally been Israeli aerial assaults on places nearer to the centre of the town. A strike on an apartment block near the Lebanese parliament constructing on Oct 2 killed a number of folks together with rescue officers and paramedics, in accordance with Beirut’s civil defence.
What is going to Israel do subsequent?
Israel is now engaged in hostilities with armed forces and non-state armed teams in a number of international locations within the Center East, together with Iran, Syria and Iran-backed teams working in Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
Iran’s ballistic missile assault towards Israel on Tuesday was the most recent main escalation.
What occurs subsequent is unclear, however Israel has vowed to reply, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu describing the assault as “a giant mistake” that Iran “can pay for”.
