WASHINGTON/BEIRUT/JERUSALEM — Tentera Lubnan berundur dari sempadan dengan Israel lewat Isnin ketika pencerobohan darat oleh Israel nampaknya akan berlaku, hanya beberapa hari selepas Israel membunuh ketua kumpulan bersenjata Lubnan Hizbullah dalam peningkatan ketegangan serantau.
Seorang pegawai AS (Amerika Syarikat) yang bercakap dengan syarat tidak mahu namanya disiarkan memberitahu Reuters bahawa kedudukan tentera Israel mencadangkan pencerobohan darat mungkin berlaku.
Menteri Pertahanan Israel Yoav Gallant memberitahu ketua majlis tempatan di utara Israel bahawa fasa seterusnya peperangan di sepanjang sempadan selatan Lubnan akan bermula tidak lama lagi, dan menyokong tujuan membawa pulang warga Israel yang melarikan diri dari roket Hizbullah selama hampir setahun perang sempadan.
Dia juga memberitahu tentera: “Kita akan menggunakan semua cara yang mungkin diperlukan – pasukan anda, pasukan lain, dari udara, dari laut, dan di darat. Semoga berjaya.”
Tentera Lubnan berundur dari kedudukan di sepanjang sempadan selatan Lubnan dengan Israel ke kira-kira lima kilometer (3 batu) di utara sempadan, sumber keselamatan Lubnan memberitahu Reuters.
Jurucakap tentera Lubnan tidak mengesahkan atau menafikan pergerakan itu.
Amal Al-Hourani, datuk bandar Jdeidet Marjayoun, sebuah perkampungan Lubnan majoriti Kristian kurang daripada 10 km dari sempadan, memberitahu Reuters bahawa dua penduduk tempatan telah menerima panggilan nampaknya daripada tentera Israel memberitahu mereka untuk mengosongkan kawasan itu secepat mungkin.
Tentera Israel mengisytiharkan kawasan sekitar komuniti Metula, Misgav Am, dan Kfar Giladi di utara Israel berhampiran sempadan dengan Lubnan sebagai zon tentera tertutup dan berkata kemasukan ke kawasan itu dilarang.
Pembunuhan Hassan Nasrallah pada Jumaat – pemimpin paling berkuasa dalam “Paksi Penentangan” Tehran terhadap kepentingan Israel dan AS di Timur Tengah – merupakan salah satu tamparan paling teruk dalam beberapa dekad kepada kedua-dua, Hizbullah dan Iran.
Selepas dua minggu serangan udara intensif dan rentetan pembunuhan komander Hizbullah, Israel telah mencadangkan dengan lebih kuat bahawa pencerobohan darat semakin hampir.
Washington Post memetik seorang pegawai AS yang tidak dikenali sebagai berkata Israel telah memberitahu AS bahawa operasi itu akan menjadi lebih kecil daripada perang 2006 menentang Hizbullah dan memberi tumpuan kepada keselamatan sempadan.
Jurucakap Jabatan Negara Matthew Miller berkata Israel telah memberitahu AS ia menjalankan operasi darat terhad yang tertumpu pada infrastruktur Hizbullah di Lubnan berhampiran sempadan.
Israel minggu lalu menolak cadangan AS dan Perancis yang menggesa gencatan senjata selama 21 hari bagi memberi masa bagi penyelesaian diplomatik yang membolehkan orang awam kehilangan tempat tinggal di kedua-dua pihak pulang ke tanah air.
Presiden AS Joe Biden, yang setakat ini tidak berjaya menggesa Israel untuk mengekang serangannya ke atas Hizbullah atau ke atas militia Hamas di Gaza, menggesa gencatan senjata.
“Saya lebih bimbang daripada yang anda mungkin tahu dan saya selesa dengan mereka berhenti,” kata Biden kepada pemberita apabila ditanya sama ada dia selesa dengan rancangan Israel untuk pencerobohan rentas sempadan.
“Kita sepatutnya mengadakan gencatan senjata sekarang.”
HEZBOLLAH KATA SUDAH BERSEDIA HADAPI PENCEROBOHAN DARAT
Timbalan pemimpin Hizbullah Naim Qassem, dalam ucapan awam pertama sejak serangan udara Israel membunuh Nasrallah, berkata bahawa “pasukan penentangan bersedia untuk pertempuran darat”.
Semasa dia bercakap, serangan udara Israel di Beirut dan tempat lain di Lubnan berterusan, melanjutkan kempen yang telah menghapuskan beberapa komander Hizbullah tetapi juga membunuh kira-kira 1,000 orang awam dan memaksa satu juta untuk meninggalkan rumah mereka, menurut kerajaan Lubnan.
Angka kematian akibat serangan Israel ke atas bandar Ain Deleb di selatan Lubnan meningkat kepada 45 orang, kata kementerian kesihatan Lubnan pada Isnin.
Anggota penyelamat berdiri di atas bangunan rata. “Kami menyelamatkan orang-orang ini, menarik keluar yang hidup, yang terkoyak, dan para syuhada,” kata seorang, Mazin al-Khatib.
Pembunuhan Nasrallah, bersama-sama dengan pembunuhan dan serangan sistematik ke atas peranti komunikasi kumpulan itu, merupakan tamparan terbesar kepada gerakan Syiah sejak Iran menciptanya pada 1982 untuk memerangi Israel.
Nasrallah membina Hizbullah menjadi pasukan tentera dan politik yang paling berkuasa di Lubnan, dengan jangkauan luas di seluruh Timur Tengah.
Kini ia mesti menggantikan seorang pemimpin yang berkarisma dan tinggi yang dicap oleh Barat sebagai dalang pengganas tetapi bagi jutaan penyokong adalah seorang wira yang menentang Israel.
Qassem berkata ia akan “memilih setiausaha agung parti pada peluang paling awal”.
Beliau berkata Hizbullah terus melancarkan roket sedalam 150 km (93 batu) ke dalam wilayah Israel.
“Kami tahu bahawa pertempuran mungkin panjang,” katanya.
“Kami akan menang seperti yang kami menang dalam pembebasan 2006,” tambahnya, merujuk kepada konflik besar terakhir antara kedua-dua musuh.
Tetapi Perdana Menteri Israel Benjamin Netanyahu memberi amaran kepada penyokong utama Hizbullah, Iran, bahawa “tidak ada tempat yang kami tidak akan pergi untuk melindungi rakyat kami dan melindungi negara kami”.
Dalam klip video tiga minit dalam bahasa Inggeris yang ditujukannya kepada rakyat Iran, dia menuduh kerajaan mereka menjerumuskan Timur Tengah “lebih dalam ke dalam peperangan” dengan mengorbankan rakyatnya sendiri, yang ia membawa “lebih dekat ke jurang”.
PEMBUNUHAN PEMIMPIN MILITAN PALESTIN
Israel juga telah membunuh pemimpin kumpulan militan Palestin, Hamas yang disokong Iran dalam perang Gaza, salah seorang daripada mereka – pemimpin politiknya Ismail Haniyeh – ketika dia melawat ibu negara Iran pada Julai.
Beberapa jam sebelum Qassem bercakap, Hamas berkata serangan udara Israel telah membunuh pemimpinnya di Lubnan, Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin, bersama isteri, anak lelaki dan anak perempuannya di bandar Tyre.
Abu el-Amin telah bekerja untuk agensi pelarian Palestin PBB, UNRWA sebelum digantung pada Mac.
Ketua UNRWA Philippe Lazzarini memberitahu pemberita ia tidak mengetahui yang dikatakan peranannya (dalam) Hamas.
Satu lagi puak, Barisan Popular untuk Pembebasan Palestin, berkata tiga daripada pemimpinnya telah mati dalam serangan di daerah Kola di Beirut, serangan Israel pertama yang begitu dekat dengan pusat bandar.
Serangan Israel ke atas sasaran militan di Lubnan adalah sebahagian daripada konflik yang menjangkau dari wilayah Palestin di Gaza dan Tebing Barat yang diduduki kepada kumpulan yang disokong Iran di Yaman dan Iraq.
Peningkatan itu telah menimbulkan kebimbangan bahawa AS dan Iran akan disedut ke dalam konflik itu.
Jurucakap Kementerian Luar Iran, Nasser Kanaani berkata Tehran tidak akan membiarkan mana-mana “tindakan jenayah” Israel tidak dijawab, merujuk kepada pembunuhan Nasrallah dan timbalan komander Kor Pengawal Revolusi Iran yang meninggal dunia dalam serangan yang sama.
REUTERS
ENGLISH VERSION
Lebanese troops pull back from border as Israeli ground invasion looms
WASHINGTON/BEIRUT/JERUSALEM — Lebanese troops pulled back from the border with Israel late on Monday as a ground invasion by Israel looked imminent, just days after Israel killed the head of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah in an escalation of regional tensions.
A U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity told Reuters the positioning of Israeli troops suggested a ground incursion could be imminent.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told local council heads in northern Israel that the next phase of the war along Lebanon’s southern border would begin soon, and support the aim of bringing home Israelis who have fled Hezbollah rockets during nearly a year of border warfare.
He also told troops: “We will use all the means that may be required – your forces, other forces, from the air, from the sea, and on land. Good luck.”
Lebanese troops pulled back from positions along Lebanon’s southern border with Israel to about five kilometres (3 miles) north of the border, a Lebanese security source told Reuters.
A Lebanese army spokesperson did not confirm or deny the movement.
Amal Al-Hourani, mayor of Jdeidet Marjayoun, a Christian-majority Lebanese village less than 10 km from the border, told Reuters that two locals had received calls apparently from the Israeli army telling them to evacuate the area as soon as possible.
The Israeli military declared the areas around the communities of Metula, Misgav Am, and Kfar Giladi in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon as a closed military zone and said entry to the areas was prohibited.
Friday’s assassination of Hassan Nasrallah – the most powerful leader in Tehran’s “Axis of Resistance” against Israeli and U.S. interests in the Middle East – was one of the heaviest blows in decades to both Hezbollah and Iran.
After two weeks of intensive airstrikes and a string of assassinations of Hezbollah commanders, Israel has suggested ever more strongly that a land invasion is looming.
The Washington Post cited an unidentified U.S. official as saying Israel had already told the U.S. the operation would be smaller than its 2006 war against Hezbollah and focus on border security.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Israel had told the U.S. it is conducting limited ground operations focused on Hezbollah infrastructure in Lebanon near the border.
Israel last week rejected a proposal by the U.S. and France calling for a 21-day ceasefire to give time for a diplomatic settlement that would allow displaced civilians on both sides to return home.
U.S. President Joe Biden, who has so far had little success urging Israel to rein in its assaults on Hezbollah or on the Hamas militia in Gaza, called for a ceasefire.
“I’m more worried than you might know and I’m comfortable with them stopping,” Biden told reporters when asked if he was comfortable with Israeli plans for a cross-border incursion. “We should have a ceasefire now.”
HEZBOLLAH SAYS IT IS READY TO FACE LAND INCURSION
Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Qassem, in a first public speech since Israeli airstrikes killed Nasrallah, said that “the resistance forces are ready for a ground engagement”.
As he spoke, Israeli airstrikes in Beirut and elsewhere in Lebanon continued, extending a campaign that has eliminated several Hezbollah commanders but also killed about 1,000 civilians and forced one million to flee their homes, according to the Lebanese government.
The death toll from an Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese town of Ain Deleb rose to 45, Lebanon’s health ministry said on Monday.
Rescuers stood on a flattened building. “We are rescuing these people, pulling out the living, the torn apart, and the martyrs,” said one, Mazin al-Khatib.
Nasrallah’s killing, along with the assassinations and systematic attacks on the group’s communications devices, constitute the biggest blow to the Shi’ite movement since Iran created it in 1982 to fight Israel.
Nasrallah built Hezbollah into Lebanon’s most powerful military and political force, with a wide reach across the Middle East.
Now it must replace a charismatic, towering leader who the West branded a terrorist mastermind but who to millions of supporters was a hero who stood up to Israel.
Qassem said it would “choose a secretary-general for the party at the earliest opportunity”.
He said Hezbollah had continued to fire rockets as deep as 150 km (93 miles) into Israeli territory.
“We know that the battle may be long,” he said. “We will win as we won in the liberation of 2006,” he added, referring to the last big conflict between the two foes.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hezbollah’s main backer, Iran, that “there is nowhere we will not go to protect our people and protect our country”.
In a three-minute video clip in English that he addressed to the Iranian people, he accused their government of plunging the Middle East “deeper into war” at the expense of its own people, whom it was bringing “closer to the abyss”.
ASSASSINATIONS OF PALESTINIAN MILITANT LEADERS
Israel has also assassinated leaders of the Iranian-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza war, one of them – its political leader Ismail Haniyeh – as he was visiting the Iranian capital in July.
Hours before Qassem spoke, Hamas said an Israeli airstrike had killed its leader in Lebanon, Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin, along with his wife, son and daughter in the city of Tyre.
Abu el-Amin had worked for the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA before being suspended in March.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told reporters it had not known of his purported Hamas role.
Another faction, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said three of its leaders had died in a strike in Beirut’s Kola district, the first Israeli attack so close to the city centre.
The Israeli attacks on militant targets in Lebanon are part of a conflict stretching from the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the occupied West Bank to Iranian-backed groups in Yemen and Iraq.
The escalation has raised fears that the United States and Iran will be sucked into the conflict.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said Tehran would not let any of Israel’s “criminal acts” go unanswered, referring to the killings of Nasrallah and an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps deputy commander who died in the same strikes.
REUTERS
