Israel launches small ground raids against Hezbollah as fight in Lebanon intensifies

Jerusalem: Israel launched small ground raids against Hezbollah, officials said Monday, and it declared three of its northern communities as a “closed military zone” as signals grew that more forces could soon be sent into Lebanon to fight the Iran-backed militants.

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 on Lebanese soil. The last time the two enemies engaged in ground combat was a monthlong war in 2006.

But a Western official, a diplomat in Cairo whose country is directly involved in de-escalation efforts, said an Israeli ground operation in Lebanon is “imminent”. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation, said Israel had shared its plans with the US and other Western allies, and conveyed the operation will “be limited”.

Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged fire almost every day since the war in Gaza began. The fighting has displaced tens of thousands of people in Israel and Lebanon. Israel says it will continue to strike Hezbollah until it is safe for Israelis displaced from border communities to return to their homes. Hezbollah has promised to keep firing rockets into Israel until there is a cease-fire in Gaza.

It was not clear if Israel had made a final decision on a broader ground operation in Lebanon.

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

Israel’s order restricting entry and exit from the northern communities of Metula, Misgav Am and Kfar Giladi does not necessarily mean Israeli troops will invade Lebanon immediately. Areas can also be declared closed military zones if an imminent threat is detected.

But the Israeli army has heavily beefed up forces along the border with Lebanon in recent days, and commanders have said they are prepared to send in forces if the government gives the order.

Chris Coyle, a resident of northern Israel, said the army had erected gates and checkpoints throughout the region and positioned scores of tanks along the border in recent days. “They’re certainly getting ready to go in,” he said.

In the nearby Golan Heights, an Associated Press reporter heard the sounds of Israeli artillery fire and explosions in southern Lebanon. Israeli forces also fired flares into Lebanon.

Israeli strikes have killed Nasrallah and six of his top commanders and officials in the last 10 days. They have also hit what the military says are thousands of militant targets across large parts of Lebanon. Over 1,000 people have been killed in the country in the past two weeks, nearly a quarter of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry.

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

Despite the heavy blow Hezbollah has suffered in recent weeks, acting leader Naim Kassem said in a televised statement that if Israel decides to launch a ground offensive, the group’s fighters are ready. He said the commanders killed have already been replaced.

Nasrallah’s longtime deputy, Kassem will remain in his acting position until the group’s leadership elects a replacement. The man widely expected to take over the top post is Hashem Safieddine, a cousin of Nasrallah who oversees Hezbollah’s political affairs.

Hezbollah’s capabilities are unclear after a series of major blows

Hezbollah has significantly increased its rocket attacks in the past week to several hundred daily, but most have been intercepted or fallen in open areas. Several people have been wounded in Israel. There have been no fatalities since two soldiers were killed near the border on Sept 19.

But Hezbollah’s capabilities remain unclear.

As recently as two weeks ago, a strike like Monday’s in central Beirut — outside of the main areas where Hezbollah operates and next to a busy transportation hub normally crowded with buses and taxis — would have been seen as a major escalation and likely followed by a long-range Hezbollah strike into Israel.

But the unspoken rules of the long-running conflict no longer seem to be in effect.

It’s possible Hezbollah is holding back to save resources for a bigger battle. But the militant group might also be in disarray after Israeli intelligence apparently penetrated its highest levels.

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, meeting with Israeli troops Monday, said Israel would “use all the capabilities we have,” hinting at a ground operation.

Some European countries began pulling their diplomats and citizens out of Lebanon on Monday. Germany, which has been calling on its citizens to leave Lebanon since October 2023, sent a military plane to evacuate diplomats’ relatives and others. Bulgaria sent a government jet to get the first group of its citizens out, with priority given to families with children and vulnerable groups.

In the past week, Israel has frequently targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a strong presence, including the massive strike Friday that killed Nasrallah. But it had not hit locations closer to the city centre.

Monday’s strike killed three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a small, leftist faction that has not been meaningfully involved in months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. Israel has not claimed the strike but is widely assumed to have carried it out.

Also Monday, Hamas announced that its top commander in Lebanon, Fatah Sharif, was killed with his family in an airstrike on the Al-Buss refugee camp in the southern port city of Tyre. The Israeli military confirmed it had targeted him.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said Sharif was an employee, and was put on administrative leave without pay in March as it investigated allegations about his political activities. Israel has accused the agency, known as UNRWA, of links to Palestinian militant groups, while the agency says it is committed to neutrality and works to prevent any such infiltration.

Hezbollah began firing rockets, drones and missiles into northern Israel after Hamas’ Oct 7 attack from Gaza into Israel sparked the war in the Palestinian territory. Hezbollah and Hamas are allies and both supported by Iran, and Hezbollah said it would continue the attacks in solidarity with the Palestinians until there was a cease-fire in Gaza.

Israel responded to the rockets with airstrikes in Lebanon, and the fighting has steadily escalated over the past year. The Lebanese government says the fighting may have displaced up to a million people, although the UN estimate is around 200,000.

Tens of thousands of Israelis have also been displaced. Israel has vowed to keep fighting until the attacks stop and its citizens can return home.

Israel shows little interest in cease-fire calls as it bloodies a longtime foe

The United States and its allies have called for a cease-fire, hoping to avoid further escalation that could draw in Iran and set off a wider war. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has shown little interest, as his country racks up military achievements against a longtime foe.

France, which has close ties to Lebanon, has joined the United States in calling for a cease-fire. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, visiting Beirut Monday, urged Israel to refrain from a ground offensive.

Barrot also called on Hezbollah to stop firing on Israel, saying the group “bears heavy responsibility in the current situation, given its choice to enter the conflict”.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, speaking after meeting with Barrot, said the country is committed to an immediate cease-fire followed by the deployment of Lebanese troops in the south, in keeping with a UN Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war but was never fully implemented.

Hezbollah, which boasts tens of thousands of battle-hardened fighters and long-range missiles capable of hitting anywhere inside Israel, has long been seen as the most powerful militant group in the region and a key partner to Iran in both threatening and deterring Israel.

But Hezbollah has never faced an onslaught quite like this one, which began with a sophisticated attack on its pagers and walkie-talkies in mid-September that killed dozens of people and wounded around 3,000 — including many fighters but also many civilians.