Lebanon may face destruction like Gaza: Netanyahu

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urged the Lebanese people to throw out Hezbollah and avoid “destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza”.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s appeal on Tuesday came as Israel expanded its invasion against Hezbollah by sending thousands more troops into a new zone in south-west Lebanon, BBC reports.

Its military said 50 Hezbollah members were killed in air strikes on Monday.

During a video address directed at the people of Lebanon, Netanyahu said: “You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza.”

“I say to you, the people of Lebanon: Free your country from Hezbollah so that this war can end.”

Netanyahu also claimed the Israel Defense Forces had killed the successor to Hezbollah’s former leader, Hassan Nasrallah, but the IDF later said it could not confirm Hashem Safieddine’s death.

Hezbollah has remained defiant despite three weeks of intense Israeli strikes and other attacks that Lebanese officials say have killed more than 1,400 people and displaced another 1.2 million.

The Lebanese health ministry said 36 people were killed and 150 injured in Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah launched barrages of rockets towards the Israeli port of Haifa for the third consecutive day, injuring 12 people.

Earlier on Tuesday, Nasrallah’s former deputy, Naim Qassem, insisted Hezbollah had overcome the recent “painful blows” from Israel and that its capabilities were “fine”.

Israel has gone on the offensive after almost a year of cross-border fighting sparked by the war in Gaza, saying it wants to ensure the safe return of tens of thousands of residents of Israeli border areas displaced by Hezbollah rocket, missile and drone attacks.

The hostilities have escalated steadily since Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of Palestinians on 8 October 2023, the day after its ally Hamas’s deadly attack on southern Israel.