Updated September 30, 2024 at 19:44 PM ET
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 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. 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.
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.
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 U.S. is sending additional forces to the region
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.
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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.
Israel’s strikes in Yemen offer a message to Iran
Israel’s conflict with the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen is also intensifying.
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.
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.
This is a developing story that may be updated.
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