Israel May Launch Limited Ground Maneuver into Lebanon

Israeli soldiers seen at a staging area near the Israeli border with Lebanon, September 27, 2024. (Photo by Ayal Margolin/Flash90) (Photo by Ayal Margolin/Flash90)

The U.S. last week voiced opposition to a Israeli ground maneuver in Southern Lebanon to push Hezbollah terrorists away from the border.

By Joshua Marks, JNS

Israel may have already begun small-scale cross-border incursions in preparation for a possible ground operation in Lebanon, ABC News reported overnight Saturday, citing two U.S. officials.

The officials stressed that Jerusalem appears to have not yet decided to send tanks and troops over the Blue Line to begin major activities to clear the area of Hezbollah terrorists so as to allow the return of more than 60,000 evacuated residents of northern Israel to their homes.

However, “border movements” into Lebanon to remove Hezbollah positions near the frontier may have begun or are about to, the officials said.

U.S. officials made similar remarks to CNN overnight Saturday, with one telling the Atlanta-based broadcaster that the American assessment was based on the mobilization of Israel troops on the Lebanese border and the clearing of areas.

Any such operation will likely be limited in scope, the sources stressed to the American news networks, with the aim to fulfill the recently added war goal of safely bringing back internally displaced citizens after nearly a year of constant rocket, missile and drone attacks by Hezbollah’s Iranian-back terrorist army in support of Hamas in Gaza.

Earlier on Saturday, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Lt. Col. (res.) Peter Lerner said that the army was preparing for a possible ground incursion, as an option under consideration.

Late on Saturday, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant held an “operational situation assessment regarding the expansion of IDF activities in the northern arena,” his office said.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi announced on Sept. 25 that the military was preparing a possible ground operation in Lebanon to remove the threat posed by Hezbollah.

“You can hear the planes above us; we are attacking all day. Both to prepare the area for the possibility of your entry [into Lebanon], and also to continue harming Hezbollah,” Halevi told troops during a drill.

“To achieve the goal of safely returning residents to their abandoned homes in the north, we are preparing the [ground] maneuver,” the general said.

In another sign that Israel is preparing for a possible escalation with Hezbollah in Lebanon, the 98th Paratroopers Division recently moved from the Gaza Strip to the northern front.

The 98th Division joined the 36th Armored Division under the Northern Command after months of fighting Hamas terrorists in Gaza under the Southern Command.

Asked by reporters on Saturday in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, about a possible Israeli ground offensive in Southern Lebanon, U.S. President Joe Biden said, “It’s time for a ceasefire.”

The U.S. last week voiced opposition to a Israeli ground maneuver in Southern Lebanon to push Hezbollah terrorists away from the border.

“We obviously do not believe that a ground invasion of Lebanon is going to contribute to reducing tensions in the region, to preventing an escalatory spiral of violence,” a senior American official told AFP on Sept. 23.

The official said that the United States was against IDF troops crossing the border as it works on a diplomatic “off-ramp” to the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

A U.S. official told Axios on Saturday, a day after Hezbollah’s long-time leader Hassan Nasrallah died in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, that avoiding an Israeli ground incursion is now the Biden administration’s top priority, as well as preventing direct Iranian involvement and reaching a diplomatic resolution that returns residents to their homes in northern Israel and Southern Lebanon.

Biden’s comments to the press on Saturday came hours after Halevi confirmed Nasrallah’s death.

Israeli fighter jets bombed Hezbollah’s headquarters in Dahiyeh, in the Beirut’s southern suburbs, killing Nasrallah and other senior terrorists, including Ali Karaki, the commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front, and Iranian Revolutionary Guards deputy commander Brig. Gen. Abbas Nilforoushan.

The Iranian general was the IRGC’s regional replacement for Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who was killed in an Israeli attack in Damascus in April, prompting Tehran’s first-ever direct offensive against Israel, in which some 300 missiles and drones were fired at the Jewish state, with nearly all intercepted and one person wounded.

Israel asks U.S. to deter Iran

Jerusalem has asked Washington to take steps to deter Tehran from responding to Friday’s strike in Beirut, Axios reported on Saturday, citing two Israeli and U.S. officials.

In a statement released on Saturday, Biden said that he directed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to “further enhance the defense posture of U.S. military forces in the Middle East region to deter aggression and reduce the risk of a broader regional war.”

According to sources cited by ABC News, U.S. officials were given at most a “few minutes notice” before Friday’s attack that killed Nasrallah.

This short notice reportedly angered Austin, who said that he spoke to his Israeli counterpart Gallant while the operation, dubbed “New Order,” was already underway.

“We do bear a lot of risks” in the Middle East region, the officials said, and the Americans were concerned about possible hostile responses and the lack of time to prepare. One of the officials emphasized the importance of maintaining communication between Washington and Jerusalem because U.S. “interests in the region could be badly harmed” if contacts are cut off.

The sources said that right up until his assassination, Nasrallah continued to demand an end to fighting in Gaza as a condition for a ceasefire in the north.

These officials also claimed that only diplomacy can provide a long-term solution, even if an Israeli military campaign in Lebanon makes preparations for it. United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War, was supposed to prevent Hezbollah from arming itself and posing a threat to Israel south of the Litani River, but it was never enforced on the Lebanese side.