Israel launches further ground operation in southwestern Lebanon; Iran issues warning.
The Israeli army announced on October 8th that it had begun ground operations in southwestern Lebanon, expanding its incursions into a new area one year after fighting broke out with the Hezbollah militant group and amid calls from the United Nations for a diplomatic solution.
Ton public and warning
According to Reuters, regional tensions that erupted a year ago after the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked southern Israel have escalated into a series of Israeli ground and air operations in Lebanon and direct Iranian attacks on Israeli military facilities.
Iran warned Israel on October 8th against any attacks on the Islamic Republic, a week after Tehran fired a series of missiles at the country, putting the Middle East on high alert.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said that any attack on Iranian infrastructure would be met with retaliation, while warning Israel against launching attacks on his country.
Iran's ISNA news agency reported that, starting on October 8, Araqchi visited Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries to discuss regional issues and efforts to stop Israel's "crimes" in Gaza and Lebanon.
Sources told Reuters last week that Gulf states have sought to reassure Iran of their neutrality in the Iran-Israel conflict.
In Lebanon, the Israeli military has put further pressure on Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah forces, saying it is conducting "limited, localized and targeted operations" in southwestern Lebanon after declaring similar operations in the southeastern border region.
Israeli troops attacked southern suburbs of Beirut on the night of October 7 and said they killed a senior Hezbollah member responsible for the group's budget and logistics.
If confirmed, the death of Suhail Hussein Husseini would be the latest in a series of Israeli assassinations targeting leaders and commanders of Hezbollah and its ally Hamas.
In its biggest blow to Hezbollah in decades, Israel killed the group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in an airstrike in the southern suburbs of Beirut late last month.
The UN Special Coordinator in Lebanon and head of the UN peacekeeping mission in the country said on October 8 that their repeated calls for restraint had "gone unheard" over the past year, since the exchange of fire began between Hezbollah and Israel.
"Now, one year later, the near-daily skirmishes have escalated into a relentless military campaign with catastrophic humanitarian consequences," they said in a joint statement.
Israel gradually expanding the campaign
The attacks have raised fears that the United States—Israel's closest ally—and the Islamic Republic of Iran will be drawn into a full-blown conflict in the oil-producing Middle East.
Tensions between the two sworn enemies, Iran and Israel, are rising after years of covert warfare and assassination attempts that have escalated into direct confrontations, further intensifying regional tensions.
Israel has been considering options to respond to Tehran's ballistic missile attack last week, which was carried out in response to Israeli military action in Lebanon.
The American news website Axios quoted Israeli officials as saying that Iranian oil facilities could be attacked, which would be a serious escalation that could drive up global oil prices.
On Friday, President Joe Biden said he would consider alternatives to attacking Iranian oil fields if he were in Israel's position, adding that he thought Israel had not yet reached a conclusion on how to respond to Iran.
Israeli airstrikes have forced 1.2 million Lebanese to flee their homes, and the intensified Israeli bombing campaign has led many Lebanese to fear that their country will suffer the same devastating destruction that Israel has inflicted on Gaza.
Israeli forces issued warnings in Arabic to many people to stay away from a stretch of Lebanese coastline, and said they would soon begin operations against Hezbollah from the sea.
Approximately 2,000 Lebanese have been killed since Hezbollah began shelling Israel a year ago to show solidarity with Hamas, most of them in the past few weeks.
The Israeli military has described its ground operations in Lebanon as localized and limited, but has gradually increased their scale starting last week.
The Israel Defense Forces stated that their objective was to clear border areas where Hezbollah fighters were hiding, and they had no plans to advance further into Lebanon.
