Hezbollah Says It Is Ready for Any Israeli Land Invasion in Lebanon

 People pass by buildings damaged in an Israeli strike, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Cola, central Beirut, Lebanon September 30, 2024. (Reuters)
People pass by buildings damaged in an Israeli strike, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Cola, central Beirut, Lebanon September 30, 2024. (Reuters)
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Hezbollah Says It Is Ready for Any Israeli Land Invasion in Lebanon

 People pass by buildings damaged in an Israeli strike, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Cola, central Beirut, Lebanon September 30, 2024. (Reuters)
People pass by buildings damaged in an Israeli strike, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Cola, central Beirut, Lebanon September 30, 2024. (Reuters)

Hezbollah's deputy leader Naim Qassem, in his first public address since Israel assassinated the group's chief Hassan Nasrallah last week, said the movement is ready to confront any Israeli ground invasion of Lebanon.

Israel will not achieve its goals, he said.

"We will face any possibility and we are ready if the Israelis decide to enter by land and the resistance forces are ready for a ground engagement," he said.

Israeli forces have dealt multiple blows to Hezbollah in a two-week wave of attacks on targets in Lebanon that has eliminated several commanders. The possibility that Israel's next move might be to send ground troops and tanks over the border is on many minds.

In other developments, the Palestinian group Hamas said an Israeli airstrike killed its leader in Lebanon in the city of Tyre on Monday, and another Palestinian organization said three of its leaders died in a strike in central Beirut - the first such hit inside the capital's limits.

The killings were the latest in a wave of intensified Israeli attacks on militant targets in Lebanon, part of a conflict also stretching from the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the occupied West Bank, to Yemen, and within Israel itself.

Hamas said its leader in Lebanon, Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin was killed along with his wife, son and daughter, in a strike that targeted their house in a refugee camp in the southern city of Tyre in the early hours of Monday.

Another group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), said three of its leaders were killed in a strike that targeted Beirut's Cola district.

This was the first time Israel had struck Beirut beyond its southern suburbs in a campaign which culminated in the assassination of Nasrallah last week in a succession of heavy air strikes.

The strike against the PFLP hit the upper floor of an apartment building, Reuters witnesses said. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

The latest attacks indicated Israel has no intention of slowing down its offensive on multiple fronts even after eliminating Nasrallah, who was Iran's most powerful ally in its "Axis of Resistance" against Israeli and US influence in the region.

Israel's intensified attacks against the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and Houthi militias in Yemen have prompted fears that Middle East fighting could spin out of control and draw in Iran and the United States, Israel's main ally.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said Tehran would not leave any of Israel's "criminal acts" go unanswered. He was referring to the killing of Nasrallah and an Iranian Guard deputy commander, Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan, who died in the same strikes on Friday.

Lebanon's Health Ministry says more than 1,000 Lebanese have been killed and 6,000 wounded in the past two weeks, without specifying how many were civilians. One million people - a fifth of the population - have fled their homes, the government says.

The escalation has put Beirut on edge, with Lebanese fearful that Israel will expand its military campaign.

"There is nothing else to say or add, except God save Lebanon," Beirut resident Nawel said. "What will happen to me is the same as what can happen to anyone."



Biden Says Will Speak with Israeli Leader, Vowing All-Out War in Middle East Must Be Avoided

US President Joe Biden speaks to the media before boarding Air Force One, en route to Washington, DC, at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, US, September 29, 2024. (Reuters)
US President Joe Biden speaks to the media before boarding Air Force One, en route to Washington, DC, at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, US, September 29, 2024. (Reuters)
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Biden Says Will Speak with Israeli Leader, Vowing All-Out War in Middle East Must Be Avoided

US President Joe Biden speaks to the media before boarding Air Force One, en route to Washington, DC, at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, US, September 29, 2024. (Reuters)
US President Joe Biden speaks to the media before boarding Air Force One, en route to Washington, DC, at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, US, September 29, 2024. (Reuters)

President Joe Biden said Sunday he would speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and believes that an all-out war in the Middle East must be avoided.

“It has to be," Biden told reporters as he boarded Air Force One for Washington. “We really have to avoid it.”

The president’s statements come as Israeli airstrikes across Lebanon killed dozens of people on Sunday. He would not say when he planned to speak with Netanyahu.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah sustained a string of deadly blows to its command structure, including the killing of its overall leader, Hassan Nasrallah, as part of a wave of increasingly brazen Israeli strikes meant to undercut the group's capacity to attack its territory.

Tens of thousands of Israelis and Lebanese have been forced to evacuate near the Israel-Lebanon border as Hezbollah has launched near-daily rocket volleys at Israel over the past 11 months and Israel has countered with its own strikes.

With tens of thousands of civilians displaced on both sides, the Biden administration has tried to bring about a negotiated resolution that would allow them to return home and prevent a wider regional conflict.

Earlier Sunday, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Israel has “wiped out” Hezbollah’s command structure with a barrage of airstrikes that has taken out Nasrallah and several of Hezbollah’s leaders.

But Kirby warned Hezbollah will work to rebuild quickly.

“I think people are safer without him walking around,” said Kirby, referring to Friday’s strike killing Nasrallah. “But they will try to recover. We’re watching to see what they do to try to fill this leadership vacuum. It’s going to be tough."

Kirby sidestepped questions about whether the administration agreed with how the Israelis are going about targeting Hezbollah leaders, who the Israelis say have built command structures and other facilities adjacent to or underneath civilian sites. The strikes, according to Lebanese officials, have also killed many innocent civilians.

The White House continues to call on Israel and Hezbollah to agree to a 21-day temporary ceasefire that was floated by the US, France and other countries last week as world leaders gathered for the UN General Assembly.

“If you want to get those folks back home safely and sustainably, we believe that a diplomatic path is the right course,” Kirby said.

He made the comments during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union.”