Middle East latest: Israel begins 'targeted ground raids' in Lebanon

The Israeli military began what it called a “limited, localized” operation against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, carrying out “targeted ground raids” in villages close to the Israeli border. The targets, it said, pose an “immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel.”

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a warning Monday to Iran, which backs Hezbollah and Hamas. “There is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach," Netanyahu said, just days after an airstrike south of Beirut killed the leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah group, which is backed by Tehran.

Hezbollah’s acting leader, Naim Kassem, promised the group will fight on following the death Friday of its long-time chief Hassan Nasrallah. Israel has also assassinated several of the group’s top commanders in recent days. Kassem said the group’s fighters are ready and the slain commanders have already been replaced.

Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire across the Lebanon border almost daily since Oct. 8, the day after Hamas sent fighters into Israel and sparked the war in Gaza. It's been almost a year since some 250 people were abducted from Israel, and friends and family are worried about their loved ones as attention turns away from hostages and north toward Lebanon.

Here is the latest:

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says it is conducting “localized ground raids” on Hezbollah positions in Lebanon, after troops crossed the border overnight in a long-anticipated ground operation.

The scope of the incursion was unclear and there were no immediate reports of clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters.

In a video statement released to media on Tuesday, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, a military spokesperson, said troops were operating against Hezbollah to ensure that Israeli citizens could return to their homes in the north.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel shortly after the outbreak of the war in Gaza. Israel has launched retaliatory airstrikes and the escalating conflict has driven tens of thousands of people from their homes on both sides.

Hagari said a U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the last Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006 had not been enforced and that southern Lebanon was “swarming with Hezbollah terrorists and weapons.”

That resolution called for Hezbollah to withdraw from the area between the border and the Litani River, some 30 kilometers (18 miles) to the north, and for the Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers to patrol the region.

Both sides have accused the other of violating different terms of the U.N. resolution.

BEIRUT — The United Nations and the Lebanese government have launched a $426 million flash appeal for urgent humanitarian aid for civilians caught up in the ongoing conflict with Israel.

The appeal was launched in Beirut Tuesday by caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon Imran Riza.

Mikati said that Lebanon is going through “one of the most dangerous moments in its history.” He said that 1 million people have been displaced as a result “of the destructive war launched by Israel on Lebanon.”

The flash appeal seeks to assist the displaced by addressing urgent needs in areas such as food, basic assistance, shelter, health care, water and municipal services, the U.N. said.

“Without sufficient resources, humanitarians risk leaving the population of an entire country without the support they urgently require,” Riza warned. He added that the no amount of aid can fully address the crisis if civilians continue to be targeted.

LONDON — A British government-chartered flight is due to leave Beirut on Wednesday to bring United Kingdom nationals out of Lebanon.

The government says U.K. nationals, their spouse or partner, and children under the age of 18 are eligible, and priority will be given to the most vulnerable.

Until this announcement, the government urged Britons to leave the country on commercial flights.

On Monday night, Foreign Secretary David Lammy described the situation in Lebanon as “volatile” and warned it could “deteriorate quickly.”

The U.K. also sent 700 troops to a base in Cyprus to prepare for a potential evacuation of the estimated 5,000 British citizens in Lebanon.

ROME — The head of Italy’s main opposition party, Elly Schlein, called on Israel to retreat from Lebanese territory, saying “territorial sovereignty cannot be violated, international law must always prevail."

Schlein, head of Italy’s left-wing Democratic Party, called for a cease-fire in both Gaza and Lebanon, both under fire from the Israeli military under Prime Minsiter Benjamin Netanyahu.

“We cannot resign ourselves to daily horror,” she said Tuesday. "Europe and the international community cannot watch in silence. We say enough of Netanyahu’s bombardments and Hezbollah’s missiles.”

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s state news agency says an Israeli airstrike on a Palestinian refugee camp in south Lebanon killed six people, including the son of a Palestinian official.

National News Agency said the early Tuesday airstrike on Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp in Sidon, the largest of Lebanon’s 12 refugee camps, targeted the home of Gen. Munir Makdah of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah group. NNA said Makdah’s son and daughter-in-law, as well as another woman and three children, were killed in the airstrike.

Makdah’s brother, Khalil Makdah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in August in the port city of Sidon.

BEIRUT — The Lebanese army says it redeployed troops in some observation points along the border with Israel.

The army did not give further details about the posts. It said the Lebanese military is coordinating with United Nations peacekeepers deployed along the tense border area.

The army’s statement Tuesday denied local media reports that troops have moved several kilometers (miles) away from the border ahead of a possible Israel ground operation.

Thousands of Lebanese troops were deployed along the border with Israel following the 34-day Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006.

BEIRUT — The Israeli military says parts of south Lebanon are witnessing “intense fighting” and called on people not to enter the area south of the Litani River.

The military’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, posted Tuesday on X that people should not drive into the area south of the Litani River. The area has dozens of towns and villages close to the Israeli border.

Hezbollah’s acting leader, Naim Kassem, said Monday the group will fight any Israeli troops who try to occupy parts of Lebanon. Israeli said its ground forces crossed into southern Lebanon early Tuesday, marking a significant escalation of an offensive against Hezbollah militants and opening a new front in a yearlong war against its Iranian-backed adversaries.

Under a United Nations resolution that ended the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, the area south of the Litani River was supposed to be controlled by the Lebanese army and a U.N. peacekeeping force, but both Israel and Hezbollah blame each other for violating the resolution. Israel says it wants to root out an elite Hezbollah fighting force from the area.

ROME — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni said Tuesday that “a de-escalation at regional level is urgent and necessary.”

“The protection of civilians remains the priority along with guaranteeing the security of the Italian military contingent of UNIFIL present in southern Lebanon," she said in a statement.

Italy, which holds the G7 rotating presidency, is working with allies to stabilize the situation along Israeli-Lebanon border, and to help people who have been displaced by the fighting return to their homes, Meloni said.

The Israeli military began what it called a “limited, localized” operation against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, carrying out “targeted ground raids” in villages close to the Israeli border.

NICOSIA, Cyprus — The foreign minister of Cyprus says evacuations of third-country nationals from Lebanon to the east Mediterranean island nation are “slow and controlled so far.”

Minister Constantinos Kombos told The Associated Press on Tuesday that large-scale evacuations from Lebanon have not begun, even as Israeli ground forces crossed into southern Lebanon, marking a significant escalation of an offensive against Hezbollah militants.

Kombos said Cyprus has received some staff from foreign diplomatic missions and some Saudi nationals a few days ago. About 60 Chinese nationals are due to arrive by ship at the island nation’s main port of Limassol.

Cyprus has agreements with around a dozen countries to act as a temporary host for their evacuated nationals before their repatriation. Under the “Estia” plan, evacuees will be processed and given accommodations for a few days before catching flights to their home countries.

Cyprus helped repatriate hundreds of British and other third-country citizens who were evacuated from Sudan in 2023. In 2006, some 60,000 foreign nationals evacuated from Lebanon during a month-long Israel-Hezbollah war used Cyprus as a waystation before heading abroad.

BEIRUT — Overnight and Tuesday morning, Hezbollah said it targeted groups of soldiers in several Israeli border areas with artillery shelling and rockets. It was not immediately clear if any soldiers were hit.

The militant group has been firing at locations near the border, and claiming to have hit soldiers there, since Oct. 8, in solidarity with Hamas. It has not commented on the Israeli military announcement that it had started a ground incursion.

Suspected attacks Tuesday by Yemen’s Houthi rebels targeted at least one ship in the Red Sea, likely marking their first assault on commercial shipping in weeks as the Israel-Hamas war threatens to become a regional conflict.

The attack comes as Israeli ground forces entered Lebanon after days of Israeli airstrikes that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and other top leaders and the earlier explosions of sabotaged electronic devices used by the Shiite militia. The Houthis had threatened “escalating military operations” targeting Israel on Monday after they apparently shot down a U.S. military drone flying over the country.

The first attack Tuesday morning took place some 110 kilometers (70 miles) off the port city of Hodeida in the Red Sea, which has become a battlefield for shippers since the Houthis began their campaign targeting ships traveling through a waterway that once saw $1 trillion a year of cargo pass through it.

The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center later reported a second attack north of the first. The private intelligence firm Ambrey similarly reported two separate attacks. However, it wasn’t immediately clear if the same vessel had come under attack again.

The Houthis did not immediately claim the attacks. However, they sometimes take hours or days to acknowledge one of their assaults.

The rebels maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the United States or the United Kingdom to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran.

WASHINGTON — The White House National Security Council said Israel’s “limited operations” to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure across the border were in line with the country’s right to defend itself.

The NSC, however, warned that the an expansion of that operation was a risk. It added that a diplomatic solution was the only way to achieve lasting stability along Israel’s border with Lebanon.

Israeli ground forces crossed into southern Lebanon in an offensive targeting Hezbollah. The Israeli military said Tuesday it has begun a limited ground operation against Hezbollah targets that were an an immediate threat to northern Israeli communities.

"This is in line with Israel’s right to defend its citizens and safely return civilians to their homes. We support Israel’s right to defend itself against Hezbollah and all Iranian-backed terror groups. Of course, we know that mission creep can be a risk and we will keep discussing that with the Israelis,” the NSC said.

United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant that he agreed on the need for a ground offensive inside Lebanon to rid the border area of Hezbollah weapons and other means it can use to carry out attacks across the border.

In the call, Austin said the U.S. supports Israel’s right to defend itself and discussed Israel’s military operations.

“We agreed on the necessity of dismantling attack infrastructure along the border,” Austin said in a statement posted on X.

The Israeli military said Tuesday that it began a “limited, localized” operation against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.

It said it was carrying out “targeted ground raids” in villages close to the Israeli border. The targets, it said, pose an “immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel.”

It announced early Tuesday that the operation was planned in recent months and was launched after approval by political leaders.

A man checks the damaged buildings at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A man documents the damaged buildings at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A man documents the damaged buildings at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A damaged building is seen at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

An Israeli Apache helicopter fires a missile towards southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Israeli army tanks manoeuvre in a staging area in northern Israel near the Israel-Lebanon border, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Israeli army tanks manoeuvre in a staging area in northern Israel near the Israel-Lebanon border, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

Israeli army tanks manoeuvre in a staging area in northern Israel near the Israel-Lebanon border, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

Israeli shelling hits an area in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, early Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Israeli shelling hit an area in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A mourner holds up a poster of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah with a quotation of him: "We will definitely win" at Enqelab-e-Eslami (Islamic Revolution) St. in downtown Tehran, Iran, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

An Israeli tank manoeuvres in northern Israel near the Israel-Lebanon border, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

A cat walks past a building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike that hit the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Israeli soldiers sleep on tanks in a staging area in northern Israel near the Israel-Lebanon border, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan closed schools and offices and evacuated hundreds from vulnerable areas around the island Tuesday ahead of a strong typhoon expected to hit its densely populated western coast after lashing northern Philippine islands.

Dozens of flights were canceled, and more than 500 people were moved from mountainous regions prone to landslides. Nearly 40,000 troops were mobilized to help with rescue efforts, according to the Defense Ministry.

Typhoon Krathon is expected to hit the major port city of Kaohsiung in the island’s southwest on Wednesday morning then move across the center of Taiwan and northeast toward the East China Sea, according to the Central Weather Administration. It is expected to be felt in the capital Taipei on Wednesday and Thursday.

The mayor of Kaohsiung, a city of 2.7 million people, asked residents to stay indoors unless necessary and to avoid flooding- and landslide-prone areas near rivers, the seaside and the mountains. Up to 80 centimeters (31 inches) of rain was forecast in surrounding mountainous areas.

Mayor Chen Chi-mai said Krathon will be “no less powerful” than 1977’s Typhoon Thelma, which devastated the city, leaving 37 dead and 298 injured.

The typhoon was moving slowly toward the island with maximum sustained winds of 198 kph (123 mph) and gusts of 245 kph (152 mph), according to the weather administration.

Taiwan's coast guard worked for several hours to rescue 19 sailors who had abandoned a cargo ship about 60 miles southeast of the eastern coastal city of Taitung. Crew members aboard Blue Lagoon were forced to abandon the vessel early Tuesday as it took on water in its engine room, the coast guard said.

A rescue helicopter went out three times to lift the sailors in groups of six or seven at a time. Another helicopter had to turn back at one point due to the wind and rain.

In the northern Philippines, the typhoon left at least one villager dead, displaced about 5,000 people, damaged more than 2,400 houses and set off widespread flooding, officials said.

Fierce wind damaged the airport terminal and two parked light planes in Basco, the capital town of the hard-hit province of Batanes. An airstrip and a hangar were also flooded in Lingayen town in Pangasinan province, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines.

A resident died of electrocution when he was hit on Monday by an electric cable downed by fierce wind while riding a motorcycle in the coastal town of Santa Ana in northern Cagayan province, officials said.

Typhoons rarely hit Taiwan’s densely populated west coast, affecting instead the mountainous, eastern side of the island. In July, Typhoon Gaemi caused landslides and flooding, leaving at least 11 people dead.

Associated Press journalist Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this report.

A soldier of Coast Guard Administration guards on the beach as Typhoon Krathon approaches to Taiwan in Yilan County, eastern coast of Taiwan, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

In this photo provided by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, a plane damaged by powerful Typhoon Krathon lies at the Basco airport as the typhoon hit Basco, Batanes province, northern Philippines Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines via AP)

In this photo provided by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, a plane lies on a flooded airport caused by powerful Typhoon Krathon at San Fernando, La Union province, northern Philippines Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines via AP)

In this photo provided by Philippine Coast Guard, rescuers use a boat to evacuate residents at a flooded village as powerful Typhoon Krathon affects Laoag, Ilocos Norte, northern Philippines Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (Philippine Coast Guard via AP)

Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration weather specialist Veronica Torres points at the path of powerful Typhoon Krathon on Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, in Quezon city, Philippines as it is projected to go towards Taiwan the next day after hitting northern Philippines. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

People walk in the rain with a backdrop of the rainbow in the sky as Typhoon Krathon approaches to Taiwan in Taipei, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

People walk in the rain with a backdrop of the rainbow in the sky as Typhoon Krathon approaches to Taiwan in Taipei, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

A man rides a bicycle on Surf Street as Typhoon Krathon approaches to Taiwan in Yilan County, eastern coast of Taiwan, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

A man takes a photo on a beach as Typhoon Krathon approaches to Taiwan in Yilan County, eastern coast of Taiwan, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

A man opens the door of his shop as Typhoon Krathon approaches to Taiwan in Yilan County, eastern coast of Taiwan, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

A man walks his dog on a beach as Typhoon Krathon approaches to Taiwan in Yilan County, eastern coast of Taiwan, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

Waves crash onto the coastline as Typhoon Krathon approaches to Taiwan in Yilan County, eastern coast of Taiwan, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)