Israel\u2019s military ground operation in southern Lebanon has been expanded, the country\u2019s defense minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday. <\/p>\n
Katz did not clarify when the decision to expand operations was taken and did not offer any details on what the expansion entails. Israel launched what it described as a \u201climited ground operation\u201d to expel Hezbollah from southern Lebanon early last month. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have expanded the ground maneuver in southern Lebanon and we are operating against Hezbollah targets in the Dahiyeh district in Beirut and wherever necessary,\u201d Katz told soldiers during his first visit to Israel\u2019s Northern Command. <\/p>\n
There were nearly 20 Israeli airstrikes against what the Israeli military described as Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday. <\/p>\n
The newly appointed <\/strong>defense minister maintained that Israel will not agree to \u201cany ceasefires.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cWe will not take our foot off the pedal,\u201d Katz said, adding that Israel will not \u201cagree to any deal that does not ensure the disarmament of Hezbollah and its withdrawal across the Litani River \u2013 and especially Israel\u2019s right to enforce \u2026 and act against any terrorist activity and organization.\u201d <\/p>\n The Litani river is some 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Israel\u2019s northern border. <\/p>\n Despite the Israeli ground operation into southern Lebanon, Hezbollah has maintained a daily barrage of rockets against parts of northern Israel and continues to launch drones against Israeli cities. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said around 50 projectiles were fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon into Israel on Wednesday. <\/p>\n Hezbollah on Wednesday said it had carried out at least 20 attacks against Israel and its troops in Lebanon with drones, missiles, and rockets, saying its actions were \u201cin support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip \u2026 and in defense of Lebanon and its people.\u201d <\/p>\n Hezbollah\u2019s Secretary-General Naim Qassem on Wednesday praised the militant group\u2019s fighters for their support <\/em>in a handwritten letter published online. The letter comes after the group\u2019s members expressed support over the weekend for his leadership. Qassem was named the group\u2019s new leader in late October, a month after his predecessor Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli strike. <\/p>\n Israel\u2019s offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon continues to exact a heavy toll on civilians. Airstrikes on several towns across Lebanon have killed at least 20 children since Sunday, according to the Lebanese health ministry. <\/p>\n In the town of Joun in southern Lebanon, at least eight children were killed on Tuesday, the ministry said. A separate attack on Tuesday killed at two children in Baalchmay, southeast of Beirut. <\/p>\n The number of children killed in Lebanon over the past 50 days now accounts for 80% of all children killed in the past year, UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said Wednesday in a post on X. <\/p>\n \u201cChildren in Lebanon are enduring the deadliest phase of this war,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n Katz\u2019s announcement about expanding Israel\u2019s ground operation also comes as the military confirmed the death of six Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon on Wednesday. This marks one of the deadliest days for Israeli troops in Lebanon since the start of the ground incursion on October 1. The deadliest day so far was on October 2, when eight soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon. <\/p>\n Those killed on Wednesday were all from the Golani brigade \u2013 regarded as an elite infantry unit \u2013 and included a platoon commander, a squad commander, a squad sergeant, and three soldiers, the IDF said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s military ground operation in southern Lebanon has been expanded, the country\u2019s defense minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday. Katz did not clarify when the decision to expand operations was taken and did not offer any details on what the expansion entails. Israel launched what it described as a \u201climited ground operation\u201d to expel Hezbollah […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} Growing toll on civilians<\/h2>\n