Trump says Iran war will still take weeks, oil prices rise with no plan to open Strait of Hormuz

The Israeli military said Thursday it had struck “dozens of headquarters, weapons storage facilities, launch sites and anti-tank missile positions” belonging to the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon in the past 24 hours.

The Israeli military said it would continue to “operate decisively against the terrorist organization Hezbollah” in Lebanon “to eliminate the threat to Israeli civilians.”

Israel quickly intensified its operations in Lebanon alongside its joint strikes with the United States against Iran, as Hezbollah joined Iran in launching retaliatory missile and drone attacks against Israel.

Israeli forces have launched raids in southern Lebanon for years, during the war against Hamas in Gaza and then at the start of the current war in Iran, but these operations have expanded significantly in recent weeks.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said tuesday that the IDF would establish a security zone inside Lebanon after the war with Iran “and maintain security control over the entire area up to the Litani,” referring to a river that flows east-west about 20 miles north of the Israel-Lebanon border.

Katz said hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians ordered by the Israeli military to evacuate the area to the north over the past month would be “completely prevented” from returning home until the safety of northern Israel’s residents was guaranteed.

He added that “all houses in villages adjacent to the Lebanese border will be demolished”, similar to actions carried out by Israel in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza.

On Wednesday, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said at least 1,318 people had been killed by Israeli operations in the country since the start of the war in Iran, including 125 children and 91 women.