{"id":4130,"date":"2026-03-05T02:19:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T02:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/4130\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T02:19:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T02:19:07","slug":"hezbollah-leader-vows-to-fight-on-as-israel-expands-operations-in-lebanon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/4130\/","title":{"rendered":"Hezbollah leader vows to fight on as Israel expands operations in Lebanon"},"content":{"rendered":"

The leader of the Tehran-backed militant group Hezbollah<\/a> vowed Wednesday to keep up its fight against Israel, whose forces pushed into several border towns and conducted air strikes around Lebanon for a third day.<\/p>\n

Lebanon<\/a> was drawn into the Middle East war on Monday, when Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iran<\/a>\u2019s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei<\/a>, during US<\/a>\u2013Israeli strikes over the weekend.<\/p>\n

The group stepped up its attacks on Wednesday, saying it targeted Israeli positions as far as Tel Aviv in at least 15 attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are facing aggression\u2026 our choice is to confront it until the ultimate sacrifice, and we will not surrender,\u201d Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem declared in his first speech since the latest round of fighting broke out.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us this is an existential defence,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Lebanese authorities announced at least 72 people killed, 437 wounded and 83,000 displaced from their homes since Monday.<\/p>\n

The Israeli military told people living south of Lebanon\u2019s Litani river \u2013 a large area stretching around 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of the border \u2013 to evacuate, warning that the army was \u201ccompelled to take military action\u201d against Hezbollah in the area.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Israel\u2019s military<\/a> said it was creating a buffer zone inside Lebanon to protect Israeli residents.<\/p>\n

Troops from three divisions, including infantry, armoured and engineering units, were operating in southern Lebanon, Israel\u2019s army said late Wednesday.<\/p>\n

AFP video footage shot on Wednesday showed what appeared to be two Israeli tanks amid residential buildings in Khiam, about six kilometres north of the border.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeacekeepers observed today several IDF movements and military activities, including near\u2026 Khiam, Beit Lif, Yaroun, Houla, Kfar Kila, Kherbeh and Kfar Shouba,\u201d the UN peacekeeping mission, United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

It added that the Israeli movements violate Lebanon\u2019s \u201csovereignty and territorial integrity\u201d.<\/p>\n

Israel said Wednesday that two of its soldiers had been \u201cmoderately injured\u201d by anti-tank fire in the south.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah said its fighters had engaged Israeli troops in \u201cdirect\u201d clashes in Khiam, \u201cinflicting confirmed casualties\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hotel strike<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Israel<\/a> expanded its aerial campaign, striking a hotel in Hazmieh \u2013 the first reported Israeli attack on the predominantly Christian<\/a> area in Beirut\u2019s suburbs, near the presidential palace and several foreign embassies.<\/p>\n

Some rooms were gutted in the strike, and wounded people received treatment in the lobby, AFP images showed.<\/p>\n

People fled through debris carrying suitcases past the Comfort Hotel\u2019s sign, which had fallen broken to the ground. It was not possible to determine who was targeted in the attack.<\/p>\n

The upscale district overlooks the capital\u2019s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah holds sway, and which Hazmieh resident Lena had initially thought was the target of the strikes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was wrong,\u201d the 59-year-old woman told AFP. \u201cJust a stone\u2019s throw from my home, a hotel was targeted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several people told AFP they had received recorded phone messages telling them to evacuate.<\/p>\n

Southern suburbs targeted<\/p>\n

A series of strikes on Wednesday continued to target Beirut\u2019s southern suburbs following an evacuation warning from Israel\u2019s military.<\/p>\n

One of the strikes targeted a building near a major hospital, according to an AFP photographer.<\/p>\n

AFP footage showed thick plumes of smoke rising above buildings in the densely populated suburb, which some residents fled when the violence erupted on Monday.<\/p>\n

In Aramoun and Saadiyat south of Beirut<\/a> \u2013 two towns outside Hezbollah\u2019s traditional sphere of influence \u2013 the health ministry said Israeli strikes killed six people and wounded eight others. It cautioned that this was a \u201cpreliminary toll\u201d.<\/p>\n

AFP footage from Aramoun showed damaged cars and rescue workers carrying a wounded person on a stretcher.<\/p>\n

Strikes also targeted a four-storey building in the city of Baalbek, in eastern Lebanon, far from the border where Hezbollah also has a strong presence.<\/p>\n

AFP correspondents saw rescue<\/a> workers searching through the rubble for survivors.<\/p>\n

Israel continued to strike a number of other areas including Tyre, Nabatieh and other locations in the Baalbek district on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The leader of the Tehran-backed militant group Hezbollah vowed Wednesday to keep up its fight against Israel, whose…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[260,89,2919,100,37,2918,2920,2921,93,973],"class_list":{"0":"post-4130","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lebanon","8":"tag-air-strikes","9":"tag-ayatollah-ali-khamenei","10":"tag-border-towns","11":"tag-hezbollah","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-israeli-residents","14":"tag-israeli-troops","15":"tag-khiam","16":"tag-lebanon","17":"tag-southern-lebanon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116174177098699479","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}