Israel launched small ground raids Monday against Hezbollah, officials said, and it declared three of its northern communities as a "closed military zone,” which seemed to signal that more forces may soon be sent into Lebanon to fight the Iran-backed militants.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Israel informed the U.S. about the raids. He said they were described as “limited operations focused on Hezbollah infrastructure near the border.”
There were no reports of direct clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants on Lebanese soil. The last time the two enemies engaged in ground combat was a monthlong war in 2006.
A Western diplomat in Cairo whose country is directly involved in de-escalation efforts, told The Associated Press that an Israeli ground operation in Lebanon is “imminent.” The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation, said Israel had shared its plans with the U.S. and other Western allies, and indicated that the operation will “be limited.”
U.S. President Joe Biden has called for a cease-fire amid reports Israel is preparing to mount a limited ground invasion of Lebanon against Hezbollah.
“We should have a cease-fire now,” Biden said.
When asked Monday if he was comfortable with the reports about Israel’s preparations, Biden replied, “I’m comfortable with them stopping.”
Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told Israeli ground troops deployed to its border with Lebanon that they could possibly be engaged in the fight against Hezbollah.
“We will use all the means that may be required – your forces, other forces, from the air, from the sea, and on land,” Gallant said.
He said the Israeli military campaign against Hezbollah is ongoing despite the killing of the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, which Gallant described as “an important step” but “not the final one.”
Hezbollah confirms Israeli airstrike killed leader Hassan Nasrallah
Gallant told local council leaders in northern Israel, according to a statement from his office, “the next stage in the war against Hezbollah will begin soon.”
Meanwhile, Naim Kassem, Hezbollah deputy chief, said in a televised address Monday that Hezbollah forces are “ready if Israel decides to enter by land.” He said, “the resistance forces are ready for any ground confrontation.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is hoping that diplomacy will be the best way forward for the volatile region.
He told a State Department conference that Washington “will continue to work ... to advance a diplomatic resolution” for the Israel-Lebanon border. He added that the U.S. will also continue to work “to secure a cease-fire deal in Gaza” that would free Israeli hostages and would ease the “suffering” of Palestinians.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot was in Lebanon Monday on a mission to try to contain the situation. After arriving late Sunday, Barrot told Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati that France sought an immediate halt to Israeli strikes in Lebanon.
Saudi Arabia on Monday expressed “great concern” about the situation in Lebanon and said Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity should be respected.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry says more than 1,000 people have been killed and 6,000 wounded in the past two weeks. The count does not include a breakdown of how many of the dead are militants and civilians. In addition, the Lebanese government says around 250,000 people are staying in shelters after fleeing their homes to escape the fighting.
The fighting has displaced tens of thousands of people in Israel near the border with Lebanon.
Along with Nasrallah and other Hezbollah leaders, Israel killed the deputy commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Iran’s foreign minister said Nasrallah’s death “will not go unanswered,” and Tehran declared five days of mourning for him.
Iran expects Hezbollah to carry out any retaliation for Nasrallah’s death
Israeli analysts say they expect some kind of response to the killing of Nasrallah, but it could also be directed at Israeli or Jewish targets abroad.
Colonel Miri Eisin, the director of the International Institute for Counter Terrorism in Israel and an expert on Hezbollah, mentioned the Iran-backed Hezbollah attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992 that killed 29 people as an example.
Speaking to reporters at a Jerusalem Press Club briefing on Sunday, she said “I don’t know what Iran will do. I absolutely think they will respond, absolutely. I think they will use, as Hezbollah by the way will use, they will use the forces they have built, some of them jointly, the Al-Quds Iranian Revolutionary Guard force. I think that they will respond in the world.”
Israel has called on Israelis abroad to exercise caution and increased security around Israeli embassies.
But Eisin says that even without Nasrallah and the senior leadership that has been killed, Hezbollah still presents a serious threat to Israel.
“This isn’t about eliminating, it’s not a knockout. This isn’t the end of the game and Hezbollah was in it for the long term. In the immediate sense, it’s not elimination but also that Israel still has militarily immediate threats that are continually being taken care of still with Hassan Nasrallah not around,” she said.
Israel says it continues to maintain the same goals – to weaken Hezbollah so that the Israelis who were forced to leave their homes amid Hezbollah rocket attacks near the Lebanese border can go home, and to free the 101 Israeli hostages whom Hamas continues to hold in Gaza.
Hezbollah broke a relative calm along the border after Hamas’ October 7 terror attack on Israel triggered the war in Gaza. Israel says Hezbollah has fired nearly 9,000 rockets at communities in northern Israel since then. The militant group says it is acting in solidarity with Palestinians and its fellow Iran-backed ally, Hamas.
Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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