Hezbollah ramps up rocket fire on Israel as IDF widens ground incursion in southern Lebanon

The Lebanese terror group Hezbollah has markedly ramped up its rocket fire over the past 24 hours, mainly targeting Israeli forces massing near the border as Israel Defense Forces widens its ground incursion in southern Lebanon.

On Tuesday, siren alerts sounded almost continuously for hours on end in the area of Metula, where the IDF declared a closed military zone just before announcing the start of the ground offensive.

After a rocket attack on Tel Aviv wounded three Israelis at about noon, several rockets were intercepted while targeting the Western Galilee, the area of Haifa and central Israel.

Another surface-to-surface missile was intercepted over the Tel Aviv area shortly before Iran began its large-scale missile assault in the evening.

On Wednesday morning, Hezbollah fired some 100 rockets in several barrages, mainly targeting the border areas – likely targeting IDF troops – as well as launching 10 rockets toward the Western Galilee and the area north of Haifa.

Amid the ongoing ground offensive, the IDF called on residents of another two dozen villages in southern Lebanon to leave their homes and move north, after issuing a similar call for 28 villages and towns the day before.

“Hezbollah’s activity forces the IDF to act against it. The IDF does not wish to harm you,” the IDF’s Arabic spokesman, Col. Avichay Adraee, wrote in an Arabic statement on 𝕏.

“For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately. Anyone who is near Hezbollah operatives, their facilities or their weapons, puts themselves at risk,” he added.

On Wednesday, the IDF published its first detailed statement about the Israeli ground operations in Lebanon, stating that the 98th Division soldiers conducted operations overnight “in several areas in southern Lebanon,” without disclosing exact locations.

In addition to the closed military zone around Metula, the IDF declared another closed zone along the border near Dovev and Malkia, possibly indicating IDF operations there.

The Israeli military reported that the troops had already discovered dozens of combat positions, while the Egoz commando unit located “a complex of rocket launchers, explosive charges hidden in bunkers, and destroyed an active combat complex.”

The IDF also announced that the 36th Division would be joining the ground incursion into Lebanon, meaning that two of the IDF’s three regular combat divisions are now in the north, while the 162nd Division and the 252nd Reserve Division are holding positions against the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip.

The 6th Etzioni Brigade, part of the 36th Division, is the first Israeli reserve brigade to enter southern Lebanon since the end of the Second Lebanon War in 2006. The IDF announced on Tuesday that four additional reserve brigades were mobilized for operations against Hezbollah forces on the northern front.

The army stated that the Israeli Air Force (IAF) supported the ground operations with over 100 strikes on Hezbollah targets over the past day.

The IAF also continued airstrikes across Lebanon. The military said the IAF had launched a series of strikes targeting munitions production sites and other Hezbollah targets throughout Beirut, after issuing evacuation calls to residents of specific buildings in the city.

“The terrorist organization Hezbollah deliberately places its production sites and means of warfare primarily under residential buildings in the heart of the city of Beirut, putting the population in the area at risk,” the IDF wrote.

“The attacks were intended to damage the organization’s capabilities, and at this time the IDF continues to attack with force to damage and destroy Hezbollah's military capabilities and infrastructure.”