'Fierce' Hezbollah Resistance On Ground As Israel Says Lebanon Offensive To Last 'Weeks'

Israel's military (IDF) on Tuesday announced it is calling up four additional reserves brigades to deploy to the northern front after the night prior a ground assault into Lebanon, dubbed Operation Northern Arrows, began.

So far there's little that can be confirmed on the ground amid the fog of war. Hezbollah on Tuesday is even denying that Israeli forces have actually crossed into southern Lebanon after the IDF declared "limited" raids were happening. Heavy artillery and Israeli airstrikes are presumably paving the battlespace for a deeper and bigger infantry incursion.

What is confirmed is that the regular Lebanese Army has withdrawn some five kilometers from the border and that a UN peacekeeping force has been notified of the offensive and UN troops are "in position". Israel is characterizing its operations so far as "localized raids".

At least 25 Lebanese villages have been told to evacuate by Israel's military. Their inhabitants have been 'ordered' to make it north of the Awali River. Lebanese Christian villages have been targeted in some cases, and their inhabitants have also been forced out.

"Local residents have told Reuters that at least 600 people sought refuge in a monastery on the Israel-Lebanon border after the Israeli army warned them to flee their Christian village of Ain Ebl," writes Al Jazeera. "The villagers went to the monastery in the town of Rmeish, which did not receive an Israeli warning, and were waiting for an army convoy to escort them to Beirut, the residents told the news agency."

A well-known Greek Orthodox priest of these southern villages, who oversaw a church in in Ibl al-Saqi, was critically wounded in an Israeli airstrike on Monday. There are conflicting reports, but some regional sources say that Fr. Gregorius Saloum succumbed to his injuries. Lebanon is some 40% Christian, with rest of the population being majority Shia, and a sizable Sunni minority as well, chiefly concentrated in and around Tripoli in the north.

On Tuesday Israel has reported that multiple projectiles fired from Lebanon have fallen in central Israel, with some drones reaching as far as off the coast of Tel Aviv. It is as yet unclear the degree to which Hezbollah's missiles are actually reaching targets on the ground in central Israel.

The Times of Israel has confirmed that "A rocket fired from Lebanon on Tuesday hit a major highway outside of Tel Aviv, injuring at least two people, authorities said, placing new restrictions on gatherings as the military geared up for fighting with the Hezbollah terror group to escalate after launching a limited ground incursion into southern Lebanon overnight." This has sent hundreds of thousands more Israelis into bomb shelters.

The IDF has meanwhile publicized footage of its elite paratrooper 98th Division engaged in fighting in south Lebanon, with the support of the 7th Armored Brigade...

Reports from Arab sources and the Lebanese side have suggested IDF troops have been met with fierce resistance. According to one account featured in Al Jazeera:

Ali Rizk, a security and political affairs analyst based in Beirut, says Israeli troops attempted to “overwhelm” Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon late last night but were repelled and forced to withdraw.

“What the Israeli side might be doing is a propaganda war when they speak about successfully entering Lebanese territory.  So this might be part of an Israeli psychological war, which wouldn’t be the first time they resort to such tactics,” Rizk told Al Jazeera.

“We’ll have to see how the ground invasion unfolds. But – according to a source with ties to Hezbollah –  the Israelis did meet fierce resistance in the late hours of last night. It does appear this is not going to be an easy battle for Israel, even if Hezbollah has lost its leader and senior military commanders. That still leaves Hezbollah to be a formidable foe to inflict heavy costs on the Israelis in their ground invasion.”

Casualties on either side are expected to be hidden from the public during these opening days of the ground war. Israeli military sources have said the ground assault is expected to take at least a few weeks.

Israel has meanwhile continued its heavy bombardment of alleged Hezbollah strongholds in the south Beirut suburbs, where Hassan Nasrallah and some of his top officers died in massive airstrikes by US-supplied "bunker buster" bombs last Friday.

Massive overnight strikes occurred in Beirut's southern suburbs:

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) has reported of the latest couple of air raids that a "violent enemy strike" that targeted a building in Jnah, near the Zahraa Hospital in Dahiyeh neighborhood. Strikes have also reportedly hit a building very near to the Kuwaiti embassy.