Israel launches small raids against Hezbollah inside Lebanon as larger ground invasion looms

Beirut : Israel launched small ground raids against Hezbollah as it prepares for a larger ground operation in Lebanon, officials said on Monday.

A US official told the Associated Press that Israel has informed the US about the raids that are underway and that Israel has not provided timing on plans for a larger operation. The US has not told Israel to halt all of its operations in Lebanon and wouldn’t do so as Washington supports Israel’s right to defend itself, according to the official.

Similarly, a US official who spoke to CBS News confirmed that Israel informed the US of its plans to launch a limited ground incursion into the Lebanese territory.

Hezbollah's Al-Manar television channel reported "Zionist artillery shelling" near the border areas of Wazzani, the Khiam valley, Alma Al-Shaab and Naqura.

Wazzani and Khiam are right across from Metula in the north of Israel, where the military on Monday declared a closed military zone including Metula, Misgav Am, and Kfar Giladi.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported "continued artillery shelling" on Wazzani and the nearby Marjayoun plain and Khiam "for more than two hours."

Meanwhile, Lebanon's army is moving troops away from its southern border, a Lebanese military official told AFP on Monday, after the limited ground operations began inside Lebanon.

The Lebanese army is "repositioning and regrouping forces" from the southern border, the official said, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

Lebanon's national army is dwarfed by the military power of the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement.

According to The New York Times, Israel's raids, confirmed by six Israeli officers and one Western official, have focused on gathering intelligence on Hezbollah positions near its northern border and identifying tunnels and military infrastructure in preparation for air or ground attacks.

NYT is also reporting that US officials say they have persuaded Israel to avoid a major ground invasion of Lebanon, leading to Tel Aviv opting instead for smaller, targeted incursions.

It was not clear if Israel had made a final decision on a broader operation. The Israeli military did not comment.

The AP is also reporting that 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 diplomat said Israel has shared its plans with the United States and other Western allies and that the operation will “be limited.”

This comes hours after Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said that the “next phase of the war against Hezbollah will begin soon," indicating plans for a ground invasion of Lebanon.

International powers are scrambling to prevent the conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah from spiralling into a broader war after the killing of the group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is opposed to any ground invasion of Lebanon by Israel, which continued its deadly aerial strikes on the country, his spokesman said on Monday.

"We do not want to see any sort of ground invasion," Guterres's spokesman Stephane Dujarric told a media briefing.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday said any further Israeli operations in Lebanon have to be avoided, as world leaders urged against a ground invasion.

"Arms should now be silenced, and the voice of diplomacy should speak and be heard by all," Borrell said after emergency talks between EU foreign ministers.

"The sovereignty of both Israel and Lebanon has to be guaranteed, and any further military intervention will dramatically aggravate the situation, and it has to be avoided."

Israel has killed Nasrallah and several of its top commanders in a series of strikes targeting the Iran-backed movement's top brass, dealing a major blow to the Shiite movement.

Since mid-September, Israeli strikes across Lebanon have killed more than 1,000 people, authorities said. Nearly a quarter of them are women and children, according to the Health Ministry, and the government says the fighting may have displaced up to a million people.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday warned Iranians there was no place in the Middle East beyond Israel's reach as his military launched strikes on the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

"Every day, their (Iran’s) puppets are eliminated. Ask Mohammed Deif. Ask Nasrallah...There is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach," Netanyahu said in a video statement issued in English.

He was referring to the head of Hamas’ military wing, whom Israel says it killed in a July strike in Gaza. Hamas has not confirmed Deif’s death.

Netanyahu further warned the people of Iran that their "regime plunges our region deeper into darkness and deeper into war."

"With every passing moment, the regime is bringing you—the noble Persian people—closer to the abyss," the Israeli PM said, adding: "Don't let a small group of theocrats crush your hopes and your dreams."

He also expressed hope for a future "when Iran is finally free," saying it would "come a lot sooner than people think."

"Everything will be different," Netanyahu said. "Our two countries, Israel and Iran, will be at peace. Iran will thrive as never before."

Meanwhile, Netanyahu's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday hinted at Israeli preparations for a ground offensive in Lebanon.

Speaking to troops of the 188th Armoured Brigade and the Golani Infantry Brigade on the northern border, Gallant said, “The elimination of Nasrallah is a very important step, but it is not everything. We will use all the capabilities we have.”

He added, “If someone on the other side did not understand what the capabilities mean, it is all capabilities, and you are part of this effort.”

Israeli soldiers work on tanks and armoured personnel carriers (APC) in northern Israel, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. 

Israel has in recent days been mounting heavy air strikes in Lebanon against the "Axis of Resistance," a network of Iran-aligned militant groups in the region, including in Syria, Yemen and Iraq.

An Israeli strike on Beirut Friday killed Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah that has been armed and financed by the Islamic Republic for years.

Hezbollah's acting leader, Naim Kassem, said in a televised statement that if Israel decides to launch a ground offensive, the group’s fighters are ready—noting that the commanders killed have already been replaced.

Netanyahu's comments came hours after Iran's foreign ministry spokesman said the country had no plans to send its fighters to directly confront Israel.

"There is no need to send extra or volunteer forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran," said foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani, adding that Lebanon and fighters in the Palestinian territories "have the capability and strength to defend themselves against the aggression."

Iran has also vowed to avenge the killing of Abbas Nilforoushan, a top commander of the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who died alongside Nasrallah on Friday.

Lebanese authorities on Monday urged the families of people who went missing in Israeli strikes to conduct DNA tests at specialised centres to identify the remains of loved ones.

"To help families of those who went missing following the Israeli aggression on Lebanon and to make the process of identifying victims and their remains smoother," families should head to centres affiliated with the Judicial Police "to conduct DNA tests", the police said in a statement.

Social media users have called for help finding missing relatives, while an AFP correspondent in southern Lebanon reported hospital morgues were filled with unidentified remains.

Israeli soldiers work on tanks and armoured personnel carriers (APC) in northern Israel, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. 

Most of Israel's strikes had targeted Hezbollah strongholds in eastern and southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut, the group's main bastion. However, a drone strike hit a building in the Cola district in central Beirut on Monday, with an armed Palestinian group saying it had killed three of its members.

The strike, the first in the centre of the city in years, sparked panic, with 41-year-old resident Mohammed al-Hoss saying "the kids were in shock" after his house was damaged. "We are with Gaza and support the Palestinian cause, but our country cannot cope with us going to war," he said.

"Our country is in a wretched state. They (Israel) finished with Gaza, and they have come to Lebanon."

Lebanon's health ministry also reported the strike, saying it had killed four people and wounded four others. Israel has yet to comment.

Palestinian Islamist group Hamas later announced that its leader in Lebanon, Fatah Sharif Abu al-Amine, had been killed along with his wife and two children in another strike on Al-Bass refugee camp in south Lebanon. Israel confirmed it had "eliminated" Sharif in a strike.

Lebanon's health ministry said six rescuers affiliated with Hezbollah were killed in an Israeli strike Monday.

Around Lebanon, Israeli strikes killed more than 100 people on Sunday, including 45 near the southern city of Sidon, according to the ministry.

Lebanon's Health Minister, Firass Abiad, said Saturday that 1,030 people, including 87 children, had been killed since September 16.

UN refugee agency chief Filippo Grandi said "well over 200,000 people are displaced inside Lebanon," while more than 100,000 have fled to neighbouring Syria.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said up to one million people may have been uprooted, in potentially the "largest displacement movement" in the country's history.