TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israeli military has launched what it called a "limited, localized" ground offensive in southern Lebanon against the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

"These targets are located in villages close to the border and pose an immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel," the Israeli military said on social media late Monday.

It said the Israeli air force and artillery "are supporting the ground forces with precise strikes on military targets in the area."

Earlier in the day, 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.

Another official in the Middle East, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the operation, told NPR earlier in the day that Israel had already conducted brief intelligence-gathering raids inside southern Lebanon as it prepared for a limited ground offensive. “Everything is on the table,” the official said about the imminent ground incursion.

The 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 attack 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. 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.

Asked about earlier reports of an Israeli ground incursion into Lebanon, President Biden told reporters, "We should have a cease-fire now."

Tamir Hayman, who served as the head of Israel’s military intelligence directorate until 2021, said in an interview on Israeli Army Radio on Monday that Israel’s airstrikes in Lebanon had successfully knocked Hezbollah off balance.

From pager blasts to Nasrallah’s killing: 12 days that transformed a bloody conflict
But he said Israel should think through the purpose of a ground invasion: Is it to create a permanent security buffer zone that Israel would occupy long term, with much international opposition, or only to remain temporarily to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure?

“Are we there in order to reach a deal and then leaving? Are we there in order to stay?” Hayman said.

The 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 U.S. is concerned about retaliation to Israel’s moves by Iran and Iranian-supported militias in the region. Such a retaliation could threaten U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria.


On Saturday, the Houthis, the main military group in Yemen, launched a ballistic missile toward central Israel, saying it was targeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s airplane returning from addressing the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The Pentagon says it wants to prevent Iran from spreading the conflict in the Middle East
Netanyahu landed in Israel shortly before air raid sirens wailed at the airport and throughout central Israel. The Israeli military said it intercepted the missile midair.

On Sunday, Israel’s military said it sent dozens of fighter jets and refueling aircraft 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.

oz4real83:
This isn't a war against Lebanon, it is against Hezbollah fighters, that is why the Lebanese military is redeploying their personnel away from the borders where the fighting will take place. I just hope hezbollah will face Israel man to man this time around instead of hiding among civilians, causing civilian casualties

madridguy:


They will come vertically and leave horizontally.

CodeTemplarr:
Like it happened with Hamas right? Lol.

timesupnababa:
na shit full your brain. Them suppose just use Sledge hammer burst am into third and throwaway am inside soakaway. In Gaza as we speak Israeli IDF are still killer like dirty dog, blown into pieces with organs scattered everywhere. Na ogun go kee all of una. I don dey track all of una. You will all be buried headless

timesupnababa:
mugu u go die just now like over 400 Israeli IDF termites burnt in their tanks this morning. Smell of roasted and barbecued IDF all over the border. Your contribution to the brainwashing and extending of imperialists propaganda will lead to your brutal and painful death.

motayoayinde:
Are you ashamed to give us the latest update?

I'll help you do it.

🇵🇸 Hezbollah fires several mortar shells towards military gatherings on the northern border 🚀🇱🇧

🚨 Al-Mayadeen correspondent:

Our photographer filmed the destruction of the destroyed tanks, but out of concern for the lives of the resistance youth, we will not publish it*

"After the resistance intensively targeted the enemy's movements in the orchards opposite the towns of Adaisseh and Kfar Kela, enemy helicopters were spotted moving behind the targeted area, and it is likely that they were to transport casualties from the place, and according to an eyewitness, the "chopping" was done, God willing"..

🇵🇸 Jewish media:

Several shells fired from southern Lebanon fell in the Maskaf Am area, which the Israeli army recently declared a closed military zone.

Eyewitnesses report that a helicopter is now landing on the northern border after Hezbollah bombarded the military gatherings with shells 🔥🔥🔥

[]

madridguy:


They will come vertically and leave horizontally.

madridguy:


They will come vertically and leave horizontally.