Israel begins ground offensive in Lebanon

The Israeli military pressed its ground incursion into southern Lebanon on Tuesday, calling the operations “limited incursions” targeting Hezbollah militants.

The military said late Monday when it began its operations that it is aimed at Hezbollah targets that pose an immediate threat to communities in northern Israel. The incursion follows Friday's airstrike that killed longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

The operation, approved by political and security officials, involves ground raids by Israeli commandos against Hezbollah targets and infrastructure in villages in southern Lebanon. The Israeli air force and artillery troops are providing back up to the ground forces.

The Israeli military has closed off the area of three Israeli towns near the border with southeast Lebanon. Israeli authorities say about 63,000 Israelis remain displaced from the border area with Lebanon due to Hezbollah rocket fire, and the U.N. says about one million Lebanese have been displaced from their homes fleeing Israeli airstrikes.

An Israeli security official, speaking anonymously, told NPR that Israeli troops have entered Lebanon targeting Hezbollah military compounds close to the border. The official said the military is “acting in a limited area focusing on the villages right by the border. Some homes are 100 meters from the border, some dozens of meters from the border, and some hundreds of meters from the border.” The official said that a ground incursion into Beirut is “not on the table."

On Tuesday an IDF spokesperson asked residents of a number of villages in southern Lebanon to evacuate and move north of the Awali river.

On Monday, Hezbollah’s deputy leader, Naim Kassem, said in a televised address that "the resistance forces are ready for a ground engagement." That was despite a series of devastating Israeli attacks on Hezbollah leaders and members in recent weeks.

The Lebanese army had moved back from some checkpoints at the southern border with Israel amid intense artillery shelling by Israeli forces. A Lebanese army official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak publicly, told NPR this was a "redeployment" from forward positions vulnerable to an Israeli incursion.

A White House official told NPR the U.S. supports the incursion but is warning Israel about “mission creep.” The Israeli ambassador to the U.S. told Israeli public radio the U.S. has not restricted the duration of Israel’s incursion but that it is concerned about a regional escalation.

A senior U.S. official told NPR that the Pentagon will send a “few thousand” more troops to the Middle East, focused on air defense capabilities.

The Israeli offensive follows days of intensifying fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. Israeli strikes across Lebanon have killed more than 1,000 people in less than two weeks and forced many to flee their homes, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry. The strikes have targeted Hezbollah and its weapons, killing leader Hassan Nasrallah and several top officials, but they have also killed many civilians.

Israel and Hezbollah began trading attacks back and forth across the Israel-Lebanon border after the Oct. 7 assault on Israel led by the Palestinian militant group Hamas. In support of Hamas, Hezbollah says it will continue firing rockets into northern Israel until there's a cease-fire in Israel's military campaign in Gaza.

Israeli officials say that the goal of this incursion is to push Hezbollah back from the border, to create what they call a “buffer zone.” Israel says it will keep targeting Hezbollah until Israeli residents can safely return to their homes in northern Israel after fleeing attacks from militants on the Lebanese side of the border.

The Israeli military is now engaged in warfare on multiple fronts. Israel’s operation in Gaza continues with deadly strikes. On Sunday, Israel’s military said it sent dozens of fighter jets more than 1,000 miles away to Yemen, where it said it bombed power plants and a seaport used by the Houthis to import oil for military purposes. The Houthis said the areas hit were civilian targets and that at least four people were killed and dozens wounded in the Israeli strikes.

Israeli security analysts said Israel’s bombing campaign in Yemen was a message to Iran, showing Israel’s long-range flight capability as a tacit warning to Iran that it, too, was within Israel’s reach.

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.”

On Monday, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Israel’s defense minister about the “serious consequences for Iran” if it launched a strike against Israel. The U.S. is concerned about Iran-backed groups threatening U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria as the conflict between Israel and Iran-backed groups intensifies. Defense secretary Austin said the U.S. supports Israel dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure along the Lebanon Israel border so Hezbollah cannot threaten Israeli border towns. But he called on Israel to ultimately pivot to diplomacy.

Talks of a possible ceasefire in Gaza are on hold.

Copyright 2024, NPR

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