Israeli commando units have made brief incursions across the border into Lebanon in recent days to prepare the ground for a possible wider invasion in the near future, according to seven Israeli officers and officials and a senior Western official.
The officials said the raids had focused on gathering intelligence about Hezbollah positions close to the border, as well as identifying Hezbollah tunnels and military infrastructure, in order to attack them from the air or the ground. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military matter. The Israeli military declined to comment.
Israel’s cabinet was expected to discuss on Monday evening whether and when to launch a major ground operation in southern Lebanon, which would be Israel’s first there in nearly two decades. Israel occupied southern Lebanon from 1982 to 2000 and briefly invaded again in 2006, during a monthlong war with Hezbollah.
Officials said that if a broader operation proceeds, Israel was expected to try to destroy Hezbollah military infrastructure near the border, likely in an intense series of cross-border raids, rather than to advance deep into Lebanon and occupy large areas of land. Southern Lebanon is a rugged area, filled with steep valleys in which defenders can easily ambush an invading army, a factor that may have shaped Israeli military planning.
The raids and plans suggest that Israel is seeking to capitalize on Hezbollah’s disarray, after it killed much of the group’s senior leadership in recent weeks, including its secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah. Though much of Hezbollah’s high command is dead, the group still controls much of the Lebanese side of the Israel-Lebanon border, where, Israel says, the group has built an extensive network of military installations, rocket launchers and tunnel networks that pose a threat to residents living in northern Israel.
The Israeli government’s declared goal is to make the border area safe enough for tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by Hezbollah rocket fire over the last year to return to their homes.
Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians have also been displaced by Israeli fire on the other side of the border. Hezbollah and Israel first fought each other during Israel’s occupation of Lebanon in the 1980s, but the current conflict began last October after Hezbollah began firing into Israeli-controlled territory, leading to a low-intensity border war.
For nearly a year, the two sides have been gradually firing deeper into each other’s territory, but they avoided an all-out war until this month, when Israel targeted Hezbollah’s senior leaders and blew up hundreds of Hezbollah’s pagers and radios.
For months, Israeli special forces have also been briefly crossing the border on reconnaissance missions though those were not to prepare the ground for a land invasion, according to five of the officials.
Their approach changed in recent days as the incursions increased in intensity and ambition for a wider maneuver, three of the officials said.
Hezbollah said on Monday that its forces would confront Israeli troops if they mounted a full invasion. The group also denied that its fighting power or arsenal had been significantly damaged in recent weeks by Israel’s bombardments, which have killed hundreds of people, including civilians.
“We will confront any possibility, and we are ready if the Israelis decide to enter by land,” Sheikh Naim Qassem, Mr. Nasrallah’s deputy, said in a televised statement. “The forces of the resistance are ready for a ground engagement.”
Since Israel began escalating the conflict two weeks ago, Hezbollah and its benefactor, Iran, have failed to respond with the intensity that many analysts and officials had anticipated. They assumed that if Israel began assassinating Hezbollah’s senior leadership, the group would begin firing thousands of missiles toward central Israel, overwhelming Israel’s air defense systems and taking out key infrastructure targets, including the Israeli power grid.
Instead, Hezbollah has fired brief barrages of rockets, mostly toward northern Israel, forcing thousands of Israelis to take cover in their bomb shelters but failing to exact significant damage. And Iran has not directly intervened.
Still, American officials said on Monday that they had pressed Israel to avoid a full-scale invasion of Lebanon, amid fears that a more extensive attack would provoke Iran to join the fight far more openly in order to protect its proxy.
After discussions over the weekend with Israeli counterparts, the U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence and diplomatic negotiations, said they believed Israel was planning only smaller, targeted incursions into southern Lebanon.
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