Middle East updates: Hezbollah says group will fight on

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has warned against further escalation against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Olmert, who served as Israel's 12th Prime Minister between 2006 to 2009, said the recent Israeli strikes on Lebanon had weakened Hezbollah.

However, he told DW that the Israeli army's endgame was not clear.

"I'm afraid that we'll find ourselves stuck in the south of Lebanon with lots of casualties and without a clear-cut defeat and victory that can guarantee what we believe is essential in order to be able to bring back the Israeli citizens living in the north," he said.

Olmert also called for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, where Israel is at war with the militant group Hamas.

"I'm in favor of stopping the war. I'm in favor of trying to find a solution in the south and in the north. The sooner the better," Olmert said, adding that he had "serious doubts" for why the war was continuing in the south.

"We all believe that this is endangering the hostages, which are still alive, and therefore, we should stop it as soon as possible and bring back the hostages."

Loud explosions have been heard over the Lebanese capital of Beirut, witnesses told news agencies Reuters and AFP.

It comes after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) instructed residents of three areas in southern Beirut to evacuate on Monday night.

"You are located near interests and facilities belonging to the terrorist Hezbollah group and therefore the IDF will act against them forcefully," Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a video posted on social media.

The Israeli military has launched "operations" against Hezbollah near the border with Lebanon, the US State Department said late on Monday.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Israeli officials "have informed us that they are currently conducting... limited operations targeting Hezbollah infrastructure near the border."

He did not provide further details. The Israel Defense Forces later warned against spreading "rumors."

"Information has been circulating about the activities of the army on the Lebanese border. For the safety of our forces, stick only to official information and do not spread irresponsible rumors," said Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari.

The Israeli military earlier declared several areas close to the Lebanon border to be "a closed military zone."

Meanwhile, Lebanese security sources told Germany's DPA news agency on Monday night that there were no Israeli tanks along the border for the time being.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) military declared several areas in northern Israel to be military exclusion zones on Monday evening. 

Civilians may not enter the three areas, a military spokesperson for the Northern Command of Israeli troops said. The IDF also posted an announcement online in Hebrew.

Areas near Metula, Misgav Am and Kfar Giladi, all close to the Lebanese border in northeastern Israel, were affected. 

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had visited troops in northern Israel earlier on Monday and intimated that the next phase of the fight against Hezbollah might start soon, indicating possible ground activities.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netnayahu's security cabinet also met on Monday amid the rumors of a possible incursion into Lebanon.

The head of the UN's Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, on Monday said he had not known that his suspended employee Fatah Sharif Abu al-Amine had also been a commander for the militant group Hamas. 

Hamas described him as the head of its Lebanon branch on Monday when saying he was killed along with family members in an Israeli strike.

Israeli Ambassador Amir Weissbrod drew attention to the man's other position online, saying it "proves that there is a deep problem in UNRWA." 

Sharif was one of several UNRWA employees suspended earlier this year after allegations from Israel that Hamas had infiltrated the organization, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told reporters in Geneva on Monday.

"The specific allegation at the time was that [he was] a part of the local leadership... I never heard the word commander before," Lazzarini said. "What's obvious for you today, was not obvious yesterday."

Lazzarini, briefing the press after a meeting with UN member states earlier on Monday, said he had asked them to "push back all the reputational attacks on the agency and the ongoing drafting of bills which could be adopted in Jerusalem."

This was a reference to a move by Israel's parliament to declare UNRWA a "terrorist body," which has already received preliminary approval. 

Lazzarini said such a move would be "absolutely unconscionable." 

Israel has long been critical of the UNRWA and has called for it to be dismantled, accusing it of inciting anti-Israel sentiment.

Several countries halted donations to the group earlier this year when the Israeli allegations first surfaced. Most, but not major donor the US, have since reinstated funding. 

Israel has notified the United States of an impending ground incursion into Lebanon, according to reports in both the Washington Post and on CBS.

Both outlets cited an unidentified US official claiming that the White House has been informed of a limited Israeli offensive into southern Lebanon which would be smaller than the 2006 invasion and focused on ensuring security for border communities in northern Israel.

The operation could begin imminently, according to the official, whose supposed remarks came as Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant also appeared to hint at such a deployment while speaking to Israeli soldiers (see below).

Asked if he was aware of the reports and comfortable with a possible "limited [Israeli] operation into Lebanon," US President Joe Biden told reporters on Monday: "I am more aware than you might know and I'm comfortable with them stopping." He added: "We should have a cease-fire, now."

Later on Monday, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told a press briefing in Washington that Israel has told the US about "limited operations" near its border with Lebanon.

When asked about reports of a potential Israeli push into Lebanon itself and whether the US has a "red line" regarding such operations Miller repeated that Israel has a right to defend itself and declined to discuss "private" conversations.

He said the US wanted to see a "diplomatic resolution to this conflict."

While he said military pressure could "enable diplomacy," he said the US was still having conversations with the Israelis because it could also lead to "miscalculations" and "unintended consequences."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has directly addressed the people of Iran in a three-minute video in English in which he claims: "Israel stands with you."

In the address posted on Netanyahu's social media accounts, the Israeli leader told "the noble Persian people" that the Iranian government "does not care about them" and is leading them ever "closer to the abyss" with its spending on nuclear weapons and support of "futile wars."

"There is nowhere in the Middle East that Israel cannot reach, and there is nowhere we will not go to protect our people and our country," Netanyahu warned, echoing comments he made to the United Nations in New York last week and promising a future in which Israel and Iran could work together.

"When Iran is finally free, and that moment will come a lot sooner than people think, everything will be different," he said. "Our two ancient peoples, the Jewish people and the Persian people, will finally be at peace."

Israel has been conducting military strikes on three different Iranian-backed militant groups — Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen — since Hamas launched a deadly surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Hamas' former leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in July this year while visiting Tehran — in an attack Israel never formally claimed but which was widely attributed to it nonetheless.

Iran has not reacted directly itself to events in these countries for the most part. But in April, after an Israeli air strike killed top Iranian Revolutionary Guards commanders at the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, Syria, it launched a large number of missiles and drones towards Israel. The vast majority of these slow-moving projectiles were intercepted with relative ease, most before reaching Israeli airspace.

Germany has raised its crisis level for its embassy in Beirut and dispatched a military transport plane to help evacuate non-vital staff as well as family members of essential staff from the Lebanese capital.

An A321 German air force transporter will also be available to carry NGO staff and their family members, as well as German nationals with medical conditions.

There are currently around 1,800 German citizens registered on an emergency list for Lebanon, a spokesperson for the German foreign ministry said on Monday, all of whom have stayed despite Foreign Ministry appeals to Germans to leave the country being in effect since October 2023.

"The embassy will continue to help remaining German nationals in Lebanon leave via commercial flights and other means," read a joint statement from the German Foreign Ministry and the Defense Ministry, adding that the two departments were "continuing to coordinate very closely" with one another.

The increased crisis level also applies to Tel Aviv in Israel and Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

Germany's Foreign Ministry has said that some 1,800 German nationals are currently in Lebanon and have registered on its emergency preparedness list called ELEFAND.

The list helps the ministry locate Germans abroad in cases of evacuations or other crisis management.

A ministry spokesman was quoted by German news agency dpa as saying that they were assisting people seeking to leave Lebanon, but that "we are not explicitly in an evacuation scenario" right now.

He said that the Beirut airport remains open for now, though it was operating far fewer flights than normal.

Last week, the Foreign Ministry raised the crisis levels for German diplomatic missions in Beirut, Tel Aviv and Ramallah in the Occupied West Bank. This means that employees' family members are slowly being evacuated and the overall number of personnel is being reduced.

Germany had been appealing to its nationals to leave Lebanon if they can for months now.

Speaking to soldiers deployed near Israel's border with Lebanon, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that the death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was not the "final" step in the plan to defeat the group.

"The elimination of Nasrallah is an important step, but it is not the final one. In order to ensure the return of Israel's northern communities, we will employ all of our capabilities, and this includes you," he said, hinting at a possible ground invasion.

The Israeli government has also been under pressure to return families to areas in the north where they have been displaced by the exchange of airstrikes between Israel and Hezbollah.

Lebanese officials have said at least 45 people died in a town near the southern city of Sidon following an Israeli strike there on Sunday.

In a statement, the Health Ministry in Beirut said: "45 dead and 70 wounded in an updated toll for the Israeli enemy attack on Ain al-Delb," following a building collapse.

The ministry said a total of 105 people were killed in strikes on Sunday, which also targeted the northern province of Baalbek Hermel and Beirut itself.

The Lebanese government said it expected the death toll to rise, as several residential buildings had been hit.

Hezbollah's deputy secretary-general and now acting leader, Naim Kassem, said in televised remarks that the group would soon elect a new head following the death of leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Blaming Israel for a recent spate of attacks on Hezbollah leadership, he maintained that the violence had done little to dent the organization's power structure.

"Israel was not able to affect our [military] capabilities," Kassem said. "There are deputy commanders and there are replacements in case a commander is wounded in any post."

Hezbollah's longtime leader Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday.

In his first speech since the killing, Kassem said the militant group was continuing its operations as usual and would be prepared if Israel decides to launch a ground invasion of Lebanon.

"We know the battle could be long, and we are ready for any possibility. If Israel decides to launch a ground invasion, we are ready for a ground engagement," Kassem said.

 

EU foreign ministers are set to hold an emergency summit on the increasing violence in Lebanon, said a spokesman for the bloc's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell.

The video meeting planned for Monday afternoon would "discuss the EU's response to the latest escalation in Lebanon."

Europe and other international powers have been scrambling to contain the conflict between Israel and Iran-aligned Hezbollah before it descends into an all-out war. However, over the past year, the 27-member EU has struggled to present a unified response to the conflict in the Middle East or exert much influence on the Israeli government.

Some 100,000 people have crossed from Lebanon into Syria since Israel began carrying out airstrikes in the country last week, according to the UN high commissioner for refugees.

"The number of people who have crossed into Syria from Lebanon fleeing Israeli airstrikes — Lebanese and Syrian nationals — has reached 100,000," Filippo Grandi said on the platform X, formerly Twitter.

The refugee chief added that "the outflow continues," and that his agency is present at four crossing points alongside local authorities to support new arrivals.

Israel has shifted its focus from Gaza to Lebanon in recent days, carrying out airstrikes on what it says are Hezbollah targets across the country. Lebanese health authorities say hundreds of people have been killed, including 105 who were killed on Sunday alone. 

The Palestinian militant group Hamas has said one of its commanders in Lebanon, Fatah Sharif, was killed along with some of his family members in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon. 

"Fatah Sharif Abu al-Amine, the leader of Hamas ... in Lebanon and member of the movement's leadership abroad," was killed in a strike on his "home in the Al-Buss camp in south Lebanon," a Hamas statement said. 

Lebanon's official National News Agency reported an airstrike on the Palestinian refugee camp near the southern port city of Tyre in the early hours of Monday. 

Hamas is a Palestinian Islamist group based in the Gaza Strip. It is recognized as a terrorist organization by the German government, the EU, the US and some Arab states.