TEHRAN - Israel persists in committing barbaric acts of aggression against Lebanon in an attempt to shift attention away from the regime’s military setbacks in the Gaza war as well as its growing domestic and international isolation.

On Monday, the Israeli army said its warplanes launched hundreds of strikes in Lebanon. 

Lebanon’s health minister said late on Monday that at least 558 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon, including 50 children and 58 women. Firas Abiad added that more than 1,650 people have also been injured.
 
Israel has warned of further action against Lebanon. Meanwhile, army spokesperson Daniel Hagari has not ruled out the possibility of a ground invasion into Lebanon. 

“We will do everything necessary to return the residents of the north to their homes safely,” Hagari said. 

His comments echo a declaration issued by Israel's security cabinet on September 17, which outlined an expansion of the regime's military objectives.

Hezbollah has more than 100,000 fighters and approximately 150,000 rockets and missiles, including thousands of precision munitions.The declaration said halting attacks by the Hezbollah resistance movement

in northern Israel to allow Israelis to return to the evacuated areas is an official war goal.

Tens of thousands of people have become displaced in northern Israel and southern Lebanon amid the exchanges of fire between the Tel Aviv regime and Hezbollah since October 8. That is a day after Israel launched a war on Gaza.

The Lebanese resistance movement has said it would halt the attacks if there is a ceasefire in Gaza. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sabotaged talks aimed at ending the Gaza war by setting new conditions. 

Monday’s salvo was among the heaviest fire exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of the Gaza war which has so far claimed the lives of more than 41,400 Palestinians, including over 16,000 children. 

Israel’s brutal strikes on Lebanon follow last week’s attack in Beirut and the explosions of pagers and other communication devices which killed scores of people. 

On Friday, an Israeli air attack in Beirut’s southern suburbs killed nearly four dozen people including children and women. It also claimed the lives of Hezbollah members including its top commander, Ibrahim Aqil.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the explosion of thousands of pagers and other electronic devices also killed dozens of Lebanese people including Hezbollah members. The detonations have been blamed on Israel but the regime has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.

Hezbollah launched a barrage of some long-range rockets at Israel on Monday, setting off sirens in several West Bank settlements east of Tel Aviv. The movement also launched dozens of missiles at a military base in northern Israel. It further hit Israeli bases in Haifa among other targets. 

“War of extermination” 

Following the latest Israeli strikes on Lebanon, Prime Minister Najib Mikati came down hard on the regime. 

“The continuing Israeli aggression on Lebanon is a war of extermination in every sense of the word and a destructive plan that aims to destroy Lebanese villages and towns,” he told a cabinet meeting.

Mikati called on “the United Nations and the General Assembly and influential countries … to deter the [Israeli] aggression”.

The premier said he would work “to stop the new Israeli war and avoid as much as possible falling into the unknown”.

The massacre of about 500 people in Lebanon is in line with Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza. The regime has failed to achieve any of its goals in the Gaza war which mainly include the elimination of Hamas. The regime's sole accomplishment lies in the brutal slaughter of civilians.

The Benjamin Netanyahu regime is also well aware that it won’t be able to defeat Lebanon’s Hezbollah. As a result, it has launched a bloodbath in Lebanon in a desperate attempt to pit Lebanese people against the resistance group.

But as Hamas’ popularity has grown in the wake of Israel’s savage attacks in Gaza, brutal strikes against Lebanon will also strengthen unity among people in the country and further encourage them to throw their full weight behind Hezbollah. 

Netanyahu and his war minister Yoav Gallant have previously pledged to “turn Beirut into Gaza”. But they should wake up to the fact that growing resistance against Israel’s occupation and barbarism will lay the foundation for razing Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground. 

Israel is facing domestic backlash over its military setbacks on the Gaza battlefield and its inability to avert Hezbollah’s retaliatory strikes. 

Israel’s global isolation is also growing. The regime stands accused of genocide in Gaza at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The International Criminal Court (ICC) has also requested arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant over committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.