On Thursday, Israel expanded its operations in southern Lebanon, with incursions, arrests, bombings, and artillery shelling, in an escalation that extended from Hasbaya to Nabatieh and the central and western sectors, in which 3 Lebanese were arrested during an Israeli force’s incursion into the town of Halta, in addition to a huge bombing in Kafr Tabnit and military movements inside Al-Mansouri.
This is at a time when Reuters quoted three informed officials as saying, “Iran warned the United States that it would respond forcefully to any Israeli attack on Ali al-Taher Hill in southern Lebanon, where Iranian soldiers are holed up alongside Hezbollah fighters.”
The agency also quoted Lebanese security sources: “It is believed that (Hezbollah) has established an underground command center and weapons stores inside Ali al-Tahir Hill, which overlooks southeastern Lebanon, and has become one of the most prominent battlefields of confrontation in the war between Israel and the group, at a time when the ongoing war in the region is entering its seventh month.
On Thursday morning, an Israeli force entered Halta in the Hasbaya district, surrounded a number of homes and prevented residents from leaving them, before arresting 3 residents of the town, Qasim, Hatem, and Zaal Abdel-Al.
Simultaneously, Israeli forces carried out bombings in Qantara, Hadada, Wadi Baraashit and Bani Hayyan, while in the afternoon the Israeli army carried out a huge bombing in Kafr Tibnit, which was described as the largest of its kind in the town. It caused a sound that resonated in various areas of the south, as a result of which thick clouds of smoke rose that were visible from long distances.
An Israeli artillery shelling targeted Al-Mansouri, while a drone dropped two sound bombs on the Al-Azziyah - Al-Mansouri road, coinciding with Israeli vehicles transporting explosive cylinders towards the town, and a “Merkava” tank and a “D9” bulldozer entered it. In the eastern sector, at dawn, Israeli artillery fired 5 shells towards the course of the Litani-Khardali River, west of Deir Mimas, and east of Beaufort Castle, while an Israeli drone flight was recorded over the Tyre area.
Nabatieh is under pressure from strikes
The developments were an extension of the extensive Israeli operations witnessed in the Nabatieh region and its surroundings, and affected Ali Al-Taher, Al-Dabsha, Doha Kfar Rumman, and Nabatieh Al-Fawqa, all the way to residential neighborhoods in the city of Nabatieh, in addition to bombings and combing operations in Hula, Kafr Tibnit, and Beit Lev.
The operations raised the cumulative toll of the Israeli aggression to 8,921 dead and 30,559 wounded, according to the Ministry of Public Health figures included in published data.
From Jabal Al-Sheikh to Ali Al-Taher
In a military interpretation of the recent incursions and their implications, retired Brigadier General Yaarub Sakhr told Asharq Al-Awsat: “The arrests in the Halta region must be viewed within the broader military picture in the eastern sector, as Israel maintains a large military force in the Jabal al-Sheikh region, which is geographically connected to the axis of Rashaya, Hasbaya, and the Western Bekaa, all the way to the heights leading towards Iqlim al-Tuffah and Jezzine.”
He added: “These movements can be read as an Israeli message linked to what is happening in the Ali al-Taher Heights, because this area constitutes, from a military standpoint, a key to moving towards Iqlim al-Tuffah, the Jezzine Heights and Jabal al-Rayhan, and from there to the borders of the Western Bekaa. This geography is interconnected, while Israeli pressure is currently focused on Ali Al-Taher and the surrounding hills as a turning point.”
Sakhr continued: “According to the military reading of the scene, Ali Al-Taher Heights has become largely exposed to fire, whether above the ground or at its entrances and exits, including points that Israel believes may constitute entrances or exits to underground facilities in the surrounding villages and towns.”
He believed that “moving from control by fire to attempting to storm, if an Israeli decision is taken, may open the way for later advancement north or northeast towards Iqlim al-Tuffah, the Jezzine Heights, and Jabal al-Rayhan, all the way to the outskirts of the Western Bekaa. On the other hand, the Israeli forces stationed in Mount Hermon are active on the eastern axis, and from time to time carry out field movements towards different areas, including the establishment of temporary checkpoints and arrest operations.
Sakhr said, “What Israel is doing in southern Lebanon falls within an attempt to consolidate control, whether through direct military presence or through control by fire, reconnaissance, and surveillance, if we take the area that Israel deals with as a security zone.”
He added: “This approach can be observed in the western sector, especially the Al-Mansouri axis and the coastal line, and in the central sector in the vicinity of Bint Jbeil, all the way to the eastern sector at Al-Khiyam and its surroundings. Attention is currently focused on the north of this sector, specifically on Ali Al-Tahir, where strikes and targeting continue within the framework of consolidating control and preparing the ground for any possible military movement,” considering that Israel “is seeking, in accordance with its declared goals and field practices, to remove any armed presence that it considers to be affiliated with (Hezbollah) south of the Litani, while the northern Litani knot remains for it.” Hence, Ali Al-Taher gains special importance, because control over it, if it occurs, will be important in its attempt to strike the party’s command and control system in southern Lebanon and on both sides of the Litani.”
Border residents demand an end to the destruction
In parallel with the escalation, the “Gathering of Residents of Southern Border Towns” warned that, according to its statement, the border and adjacent villages were being subjected to destruction, bulldozing, erasure of landmarks, and the obliteration of identity, heritage, and memory, criticizing the absence of legal, diplomatic, and political action commensurate with the scale of what the region is being exposed to.
The gathering called for popular and official action and diplomatic protest, support from civil society, representatives, ministers and officials, and submitting a complaint to the United Nations, the Security Council and international legal and humanitarian bodies, in addition to a national rally around the issue of the border villages and urgent work to stop the bulldozing and destruction and secure the return of the people.
He also called for finding immediate solutions to the conditions and problems of the displaced, especially with the approach of winter and the start of the school year and the additional burdens and expenses that accompany them.
Israeli novels about Ali Al-Taher and Al-Sibrani
In parallel with the field events, Israeli media continued to publish information regarding Ali Al-Taher. Maariv newspaper said, “Israeli forces are moving cautiously for fear of the presence of explosive devices or means of attack within what they describe as a network of tunnels and facilities, and they are working to dismantle military structures and verify facilities, tunnels, and combat means,” with the Israeli army insisting, according to the newspaper, on completing its operations in the region and linking them to operations it says it carried out in Quneitra, Majdal Zoun, and Beaufort Castle.
In a parallel context, the Israeli Channel 12 reported estimates attributed to the Israeli army in which it considered that Hezbollah, in cooperation with Iran, is developing a cyber attack system that allows it to continue targeting Israel when the direct military confrontation declines. She pointed out that during the war, the party carried out more than 600 cyber attack attempts without achieving major breakthroughs or wide-reaching results. Pointing out that the Cyber Defense Division of the Communications and Information Technology Division in the Israeli army is responsible for confronting these attempts, in coordination with other security agencies.
The Hamas movement entered a “race against time” to try to secure the departments related to its senior officer, Moin Al-Arbid, after he was kidnapped by an Israeli force last Tuesday, through a rare operation that took place in Gaza City, deep into the movement’s areas of control.
Three sources in Hamas spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat about imposing a security emergency after the kidnapping of Al-Arabid, through quick measures aimed at preventing Israel from possessing security information that “may be very important,” according to what one of the sources said.
The sources spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat in separate testimonies that the aim of these measures is to block the way for any sudden Israeli attack. Such as the assassination of leaders, or security symbols and figures with whom Al-Arabid was in direct contact.
According to one source, the movement “is in a race against time; Some of the officials with whom Al-Arabid was in contact were transferred to “safe places,” and documents that were in the locations he frequented were also transferred, and others whose locations he knew were transferred.
Two sources also confirmed that the movement's security services "abolished some of the mechanisms used to transmit and exchange messages through people, and replaced them." The sources agreed that the movement is quickly seeking to “reduce the danger” as much as possible through quick measures after it was confirmed that Al-Arabid was kidnapped alive.
New goal bank
One of the sources estimated that Israel's main goal in the kidnapping operation was “to collect new security information about the composition of Hamas in Gaza after the previously known security picture changed in light of the intense assassinations, and to try to find out who is behind the organization’s management, and to collect a new target bank.”
The sources confirmed that the information collected by Hamas forces during the past two days showed that the Israeli force that kidnapped Al-Arabid received “partial and limited assistance” from armed Palestinian gangs supported by Tel Aviv that had been operating for quite some time in the region, whether through surveillance, or moving around the site of the operation, and monitoring the surrounding places.
While some Israeli media resorted to confirming the participation of armed gangs based on statements from Palestinian sources; However, military correspondents on Hebrew channels were quick to convey a denial of that story by security sources in the Shin Bet, and confirmed that the agency “fully supervised the operation and carried it out in a very professional manner,” according to the words of the Hebrew Channel 12.
Israeli alert
In turn, Israeli forces raised the state of alert on the Gaza Strip borders, fearing what they claimed were attacks that Hamas might carry out in retaliation for the kidnapping of Al-Arabeed. According to the Hebrew “Fourteenth” channel: “A state of maximum security alert was registered following the receipt of accurate intelligence information indicating Hamas’ intention to launch an attack on the forces deployed in the region,” according to the channel.
According to the Hebrew channel, the Israeli army prepared its forces in their positions to thwart any attack scenario by Hamas, but in the end no operations took place over the past two days. Considering that the mere presence of intelligence information about such intentions shows the movement’s increasing motives to carry out attacks against the forces deployed near the hypothetical yellow line separating the areas occupied by Israel and the others under the control of Palestinian factions.
However, the Hebrew newspaper “Israel Hayom” reported that the raising of the state of alert came during and after the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the Yellow Line area, opposite Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, one day after the kidnapping of the security official. During his visit to the Gaza Strip, Netanyahu bragged about the kidnapping of a Hamas internal security official, stressing that his forces would continue their duties and would not withdraw from the Strip without completely disarming the movement and Gaza.
In this context, the Israeli army escalated the field in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, where its attacks killed two people, including a child, as a result of gunfire directed at them at the Yellow Line in the town of Beit Lahia, north of the Strip, which witnessed a limited ground incursion by forces into the vicinity of Kamal Adwan Hospital, which led to a temporary halt of work there due to some gunshots reaching the hospital.
Four Palestinians were also injured in similar shooting operations near the yellow line in various areas of Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip, as well as in the center of the Gaza Strip, specifically east of Deir al-Balah.
Four Palestinians were killed in a series of Israeli violations on Wednesday, including Muhammad al-Qadi, one of the “elite” leaders of the “Al-Qassam Brigades,” the armed wing of the Hamas movement, who was bombed by a drone while he was inside a tent in Mawasi Khan Yunis, south of Gaza.
