Israel PM Netanyahu warns Lebanon of devastation similar to Gaza

The increasing attacks between Israel and Hezbollah are intensifying day by day as Israel sent more troops into southern Lebanon and advanced farther into Northern Gaza as part of its resumed onslaught on two fronts.

Hezbollah fired roughly 180 rockets, according to the Israeli military, to hit the northern Israeli port city of Haifa. Schools near borders were closed by the administration, which also advised residents to restrict their outside activities.

Despite weeks of Israeli airstrikes on the group's "military sites," Sheikh Naim Kassem, the acting head of Hezbollah, said the organization's military capabilities were intact.

In addition, he claimed that since the beginning of a ground invasion of Lebanon last week, Israeli soldiers had been unable to go farther south in the country.

In a video message, Kassem said, "Hezbollah will name a new leader to succeed longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah, “but the circumstances are difficult because of the war.

Hezbollah declared that it would "not abandon our support and backing for our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip" in a statement shortly after Kassem's address.

The statement was intended to refute stories that misconstrued Kasseem's remarks as the group's consent to a ceasefire in Lebanon in the absence of a ceasefire in Gaza. According to Hezbollah, there is a connection between the two fronts.

Along the Israel-Lebanon border, hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes.

Israeli aircraft struck a facility in the Syrian capital of Damascus on Oct 8, allegedly used by Lebanon's Hezbollah and Iran's Revolutionary Guards, killing seven civilians, including women and children.

According to the Syrian Defense Ministry, the strike damaged a residential and business complex that housed many embassies and a security headquarters.

The foreign ministry of Syria demanded "immediate measures" to prevent Israel from drawing the area "into a confrontation that will have disastrous consequences", and denounced "in the strongest terms this brutal crime against defenseless civilians."

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, forewarned Lebanon on Oct 8 that it would see devastation "like Gaza."

In a video message, he urged the people of Lebanon to "free your country from Hezbollah so that this war can end."

"You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering as we see in Gaza," Netanyahu said.