‘Every place whereupon the sole of your foot shall tread shall be yours, from the wilderness, and Lebanon, from the river Euphrates, even unto the hinder sea shall be your border…’ Book of Deuteronomy
Times of Israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed Friday that troops of the IDF’s 36th Division have crossed Lebanon’s Litani River.
‘Our forces have crossed the Litani, and they are now dominating the terrain,’ Netanyahu said on a visit to troops on the northern border. ‘We’re also operating in Beirut, and in the Beqaa, across the entire front.’
The comments came as Lebanese state media reported at least six people murdered in Israeli strikes on south Lebanon on Friday, including a local police officer in the town of Ebba, north of the Litani River.
On Thursday, the IDF struck Beirut for the first time in three weeks following pressure from the White House.
The military also struck Hezbollah targets in the group’s eastern Beqaa heartland and elsewhere in south Lebanon, murdering at least 14 people, according to local officials.
On a visit to an IDF post on the Lebanese side of Mount Dov, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said Friday that ‘even at these moments, our forces are advancing and operating… There is unprecedented cumulative damage here to Hezbollah, from thousands of fighters to senior and mid-level commanders,’ he said.
He added that the IDF’s ‘forward defense line’ in southern Lebanon, demarcating its ‘security zone’, ‘does not limit us.’
‘Wherever we identify a threat and wherever we are required to remove a threat, we will act, and wherever there is an operational need to maneuver, we will maneuver,’ he said.
‘Every strike against Hezbollah is also a strike against the Iranian axis and the Iranian investment in the region,’ said Zamir. ‘We are prepared for any development and remain at a high level of readiness against Iran as well.’
The military confirmed Thursday that ground troops have, over the past several days, conducted raids beyond the military’s ‘forward defense line,’ in addition to the airstrikes that have taken place far beyond that line.
The defense line, which the IDF announced last month, demarcates the military’s declared security zone in southern Lebanon. The line lies 20 miles north of the Israeli border.
In a video statement Thursday, IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin — who was wounded leading a tank battalion in the 2006 Lebanon war — said that ground troops were operating ‘in places that I, as a battalion commander, was unable to reach, and they are doing so with great success.’
Commenting on advances by Israeli ground forces, Lebanese security sources said Israeli troops had crossed the Litani near the village of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah.
UNICEF says in just ast week 15 Lebanese children murdered by the Jewish State
Lebanon’s health ministry says Israel’s attacks have murdered over 3,200 people in Lebanon since March 2.
UNICEF, the United Nations children’s agency, said Friday that 15 children have been killed and 62 wounded in Lebanon over the past seven days.
The figures, attributed to Lebanon’s health ministry, were ‘staggering,’ UNICEF spokesman Ricardo Pires told a media briefing in Geneva.
‘We understand the vast majority of these children were impacted by airstrikes in south Lebanon,’ he said. ‘Only yesterday, seven children were slaughtered and 30 were injured.’
In total, 55 children have been killed and 212 wounded since Trump’s April 16 announcement of a ceasefire in Lebanon, Pires said.
Christian Lindmeier, a spokesman for the World Health Organization, told the same press conference that there had been 1,774 injuries and 608 deaths in Lebanon from April 17 to May 22.
Lindmeier added that Israel’s campaign left Lebanon’s medical infrastructure in dire straits.
‘The threat of expansion of military activities raises grave concerns for the health of the population,’ Lindmeier said. ‘To date, in this conflict, a total of 16 hospitals and 13 primary healthcare centers have been damaged… Three hospitals remain closed.’
South of the Litani, access to acute medical care and maternal health services ‘remains critically constrained,’ Lindmeier said.
Patients are facing ‘delays of up to 48 hours to secure clearance for movement to referral facilities, causing serious risks to patient outcomes, including increased maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality,’ he said.
Israel has bombed several bridges over the Litani in recent weeks — effectively cutting off the area to the south from the rest of Lebanon — accusing Hezbollah of using them to ‘transport weapons and reinforcements’. Israel has also accused the resistance group of embedding itself in civilian infrastructure, including hospitals.