Israel Clears Landmines Near Golan Heights

An Israeli tank in the Golan Heights. (AFP)
An Israeli tank in the Golan Heights. (AFP)
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Israel Clears Landmines Near Golan Heights

An Israeli tank in the Golan Heights. (AFP)
An Israeli tank in the Golan Heights. (AFP)

Israeli forces have removed landmines and set up new barriers along the occupied Golan Heights border near Syria, signaling a possible expansion of ground operations against Hezbollah, security sources and analysts told Reuters.

At the same time, Israel is strengthening its defenses.

The sources suggest this move could allow Israel to target Hezbollah positions further east on the Lebanese border while creating a buffer zone for better military surveillance and to prevent infiltration.

Reports have mentioned Israel clearing landmines, but sources shared additional details, saying Israel is moving the security fence closer to the Syrian side and digging more fortifications.

These sources include a Syrian soldier, a Lebanese security official, and a UN peacekeeping officer.

Any military strikes from the Israeli-occupied Golan or the demilitarized zone could escalate the conflict between Israel, Hezbollah, and its ally Hamas. The fighting has already drawn in Iran and risks involving the United States.

Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire since the group began launching rockets from Lebanon in support of Hamas, following the group’s attack on southern Israel last year, which sparked the Gaza war.

Along with airstrikes that hit Hezbollah hard last month, the group is also facing Israeli ground attacks from the south and bombardments from the Mediterranean.

Expanding operations eastward could help Israel cut off Hezbollah’s weapon supply routes, some of which pass through Syria and Iran, its key backers.

Nawar Shaban, a researcher at the Istanbul-based Harmoon Center, said Israel’s operations in the Golan Heights seem to be preparations for a broader attack in Lebanon.

Everything happening in Syria is aimed at supporting Israel’s strategy in Lebanon—disrupting Hezbollah’s supply routes, depots, and key individuals, according to Shaban.

A Syrian intelligence officer, a soldier in southern Syria, and three senior Lebanese security sources told Reuters that Israel’s mine-clearing and other engineering efforts have sped up in recent weeks.



Israeli Strikes Kill at Least 15 in Qana, a Lebanese Town with Dark History of Civilian Deaths by Israel

 A picture taken from the southern Lebanese city of Tyre shows smoke rising from the site of an Israeli strike targeting the village of Qana on October 12, 2024. (AFP)
A picture taken from the southern Lebanese city of Tyre shows smoke rising from the site of an Israeli strike targeting the village of Qana on October 12, 2024. (AFP)
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Israeli Strikes Kill at Least 15 in Qana, a Lebanese Town with Dark History of Civilian Deaths by Israel

 A picture taken from the southern Lebanese city of Tyre shows smoke rising from the site of an Israeli strike targeting the village of Qana on October 12, 2024. (AFP)
A picture taken from the southern Lebanese city of Tyre shows smoke rising from the site of an Israeli strike targeting the village of Qana on October 12, 2024. (AFP)

Israeli strikes have killed at least 15 people in the southern Lebanese town of Qana, which has long been associated with civilian deaths after Israeli strikes during previous conflicts with Hezbollah. Israel meanwhile struck Beirut's southern suburbs early Wednesday for the first time in nearly a week.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strikes in Qana late Tuesday. Lebanon's Civil Defense said 15 bodies had been recovered from the rubble of a building and that rescue efforts were still underway.

In 1996, Israeli artillery shelling on a United Nations compound housing hundreds of displaced people in Qana killed at least 100 civilians and wounded scores more, including four UN peacekeepers.

During the 2006 war, an Israeli strike on a residential building killed nearly three dozen people, a third of them children. Israel said at the time that it struck a Hezbollah rocket launcher behind the building.

The strikes on southern Beirut were the first in six days, and came after Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the United States had given him assurances that Israel would curb its strikes on the capital. There was no immediate word on casualties.

Hezbollah has a strong presence in southern Beirut, known as the Dahiyeh, which is also a residential and commercial area home to large numbers of civilians and people unaffiliated with the armed group.

The Israeli military said it targeted an arms warehouse under a residential building, without providing evidence.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel on Oct. 8 in solidarity with the Palestinian group Hamas, following the surprise Hamas attack on southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza. A year of low-level fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border escalated into all-out war last month, and has displaced some 1.2 million people in Lebanon.

Some 2,300 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon since last October, more than three-quarters of them in the past month, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry.

Hezbollah's rocket attacks, which have extended their range and grown more intense over the past month, have driven around 60,000 Israelis from their homes in the north. The attacks have killed nearly 60 people in Israel, around half of them soldiers.

Hezbollah has said it will keep up its attacks until there is a ceasefire in Gaza, but that appears increasingly remote after months of negotiations brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar sputtered to a halt last month.

Israel, which invaded Lebanon earlier this month and has been carrying out ground operations along the border, has vowed to continue its offensive until its citizens can safely return to communities near the border.