Israeli forces destroyed a key bridge linking southern Lebanon to the rest of the country on Sunday, and attacked homes near the southern border, an escalation Lebanese President Joseph Aoun warned was a “prelude to ground invasion”.
The Israeli army appeared to destroy the Qasmiyeh Bridge near the city of Tyre, hours after the country’s defence minister, Israel Katz, ordered all crossings over the Litani River and several homes close to the Israeli border to be destroyed.
Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported that three Israeli strikes “caused extensive damage” to the bridge and that it had been rendered “unusable”.
The NNA said the attacks had also caused “damage to the electricity networks, in addition to serious damage to shops, orchards and parks adjacent to the bridge”.
The NNA also reported on Monday that an Israeli strike had destroyed a key bridge linking the southern cities of Nabatieh and al-Hujair valley.
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In a statement, Katz said the Israeli army was pursuing the same tactics it undertook during its genocidal war on Gaza, where it completely razed the Palestinian cities of Beit Hanoun and Rafah.
Israel systematically destroyed civilian infrastructure along its border wall with Gaza, demolishing residential buildings, schools, medical clinics, mosques, and agricultural land with the aim of creating a new buffer zone.
“Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and I instructed the IDF to immediately destroy all the bridges over the Litani River that are used for terrorist activity, in order to prevent Hezbollah terrorists and weapons from moving south,” Katz said, adding that homes near the southern border would also be destroyed for the safety of Israelis living in the north.
Effie Defrin, an Israeli military spokesperson, said on Sunday that an expanded ground operation would begin within a week.
Meanwhile, Eyal Zamir, the Israeli army’s chief of staff, said fighting in Lebanon would be “prolonged”.
“The operation against the Hezbollah terrorist organisation has only begun… This is a prolonged operation,” Zamir said.
“We are now preparing to advance the targeted ground operations and strikes according to an organised plan”.
Responding to the moves, Lebanon’s Aoun called attacks on the bridges a “flagrant violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty” that could be considered as a “prelude to a ground invasion”.
European leaders warn against Israeli ground incursion into Lebanon
He added that the attacks fell “within suspicious schemes to establish a buffer zone along the Israeli border, solidify the reality of the occupation and seek Israeli expansion within Lebanese territory”.
Hezbollah reignited its war with Israel earlier this month and sought to avenge the killing of Iran‘s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a brazen US-Israeli attack.
The Shia movement has claimed responsibility for at least 60 attacks so far, which have killed at least two Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon.
On Sunday, Israel said rocket fire from Lebanon killed an Israeli civilian, but later announced it was investigating whether the incident involved fire originating from its own troops.
According to the Lebanese health ministry, at least 1,029 people have been killed in Lebanon, and more than one million have been displaced.
Last week, a top official of the UN children’s agency UNICEF said Israel’s war on Lebanon had killed or wounded the equivalent of an entire classroom of children daily.