Israel conducts ‘limited ground operations’ in Lebanon as full-scale invasion looms

The Israeli military has launched small ground raids against Hezbollah and sealed off communities along its northern border, amid reports that a full-scale invasion of Lebanon could be imminent.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Israel informed the US about the raids, which he said 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, who last engaged in ground combat on Lebanese soil during a month-long war in 2006.

But anonymous officials told the Associated Press and Reuters that a wider Israeli ground invasion could be imminent.

A Western diplomat in Cairo, whose country is directly involved in de-escalation efforts, told AP that Israel had shared its plans with the US and other Western allies, and conveyed the operation will “be limited.”

A US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters the positioning of Israeli troops suggested a wider ground incursion could be close.

Israel declared the areas around the communities of Metula, Misgav Am, and Kfar Giladi in its north, near the border with Lebanon, as a closed military zone.

Meanwhile, Lebanese army troops withdrew from positions along the country’s border with Israel by 5km, a security source told Reuters.

The army has historically stayed on the sidelines of major conflicts with Israel. In the last year of hostilities, it has not joined Hezbollah in firing over the southern border.

Heavy shelling was reported in the Lebanese towns of Marjayoun, Khiam and Wazzani, near the southern border.

At least two Israeli strikes also hit Beirut’s southern suburbs, with a Reuters reporter seeing a flash of light and hearing a loud blast about an hour after the IDF had warned residents to evacuate areas near buildings it said contained Hezbollah infrastructure.

At least 95 people were killed and 172 wounded in Israeli strikes on Lebanon’s southern regions, the eastern Bekaa Valley, and Beirut in the past 24 hours, Lebanon’s health ministry said early on Tuesday.

The IDF and Hezbollah – an ally of Hamas – have exchanged fire almost every day since the war in Gaza began, displacing tens of thousands of people in both Israel and Lebanon.

Israel says it will continue to strike Hezbollah until it is safe for about 60,000 evacuated Israelis to return to their homes near the border, while Hezbollah has promised to keep firing rockets into Israel until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.

Hezbollah vowed on Monday to keep fighting after its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah and a series of other top officials were recently wiped out by Israeli strikes.

In the first address by a senior commander since Nasrallah’s death on Friday, the militia’s deputy chief Naim Kassem said the “resistance forces are ready for a ground engagement”.

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He said Hezbollah had continued to fire rockets as deep as 150km (93 miles) into Israeli territory.

“We know that the battle may be long,” he said. “We will win as we won in the liberation of 2006,” he added, referring to the last big conflict between the two foes.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hezbollah’s main backer, Iran, that “there is nowhere we will not go to protect our people and protect our country”.

In a three-minute video clip in English that he addressed to the Iranian people, he accused their government of plunging the Middle East “deeper into war” at the expense of its own people, whom it was bringing “closer to the abyss”.

Israeli strikes in recent weeks have hit what the military says are thousands of militant targets across large parts of Lebanon.

Over 1,000 people have been killed in Lebanon in the past two weeks, nearly a quarter of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry.

Earlier on Monday, an airstrike hit a residential building in central Beirut, killing three Palestinian militants, as Israel appeared to send a message that no part of Lebanon is out of bounds.

US President Joe Biden called for a ceasefire once again on Monday.

“I’m more worried than you might know and I’m comfortable with them stopping,” he told reporters when asked if he was comfortable with Israeli plans for a cross-border incursion. “We should have a ceasefire now.”

Foreign Secretary David Lammy echoed Biden’s call for ceasefire and urged Britons to leave Lebanon, describing the situation as “volatile” and with the “potential to deteriorate quickly”.

The UK Government has chartered a flight out of Lebanon for Britons seeking safety amid fears of a wider conflict.

British nationals and their spouses, partners and children under 18 are eligible for the flight, and those who are vulnerable will be prioritised.

Mr Lammy chaired a ministerial meeting of the Cobra emergency committee on Monday to discuss the crisis.

There are an estimated 5,000 British citizens in Lebanon and the Government says it is working on “all contingency options”.