By Patrick Kingsley, Julian E. Barnes, Ronen Bergman and Natan Odenheimer
Israeli commando units have made brief incursions into Lebanon in recent days to prepare for a possible wider ground invasion, according to seven Israeli officers and officials and a senior Western official. But American officials said Monday that they believed that the invasion would be a limited one.
The Israeli and Western officials said the raids had been focused on gathering intelligence about Hezbollah’s positions close to the border, as well as identifying the Iranian-backed group’s 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 meeting Monday evening to discuss 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.
American officials said Monday that they believed they had persuaded Israel not to conduct a major ground invasion. The understanding came after intense talks over the weekend. The United States saw some signs that Israel was preparing to move into Lebanon, and some American officials said they believed a major ground operation was imminent.
After the discussions, 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.
Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, has hinted that Israel could send ground troops into Lebanon. On Monday, he told mayors from Israeli towns along the border with Lebanon that “the next stage of the war against Hezbollah will soon commence.”
In a statement released by his office, Gallant pledged that the next phase would “constitute a significant factor in changing the security situation,” allowing the tens of thousands of Israelis who have fled Hezbollah rocket fire over the past year to return to their homes.
Hezbollah said Monday that its forces would confront Israeli troops if they carried out a full invasion. “We will confront any possibility, and we are ready if the Israelis decide to enter by land,” Sheikh Naim Qassem, Nasrallah’s deputy, said in a televised statement.
Officials said that if a broader operation proceeded, Israel was expected to try to destroy Hezbollah military infrastructure near the border, most 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.
Here’s what else to know:
— Reviving a cease-fire: Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati called for a cease-fire Monday and for the implementation of Resolution 1701, a 2006 agreement adopted by the United Nations Security Council in which Lebanon south of the Litani River would be controlled by U.N. peacekeepers and the Lebanese military, and emptied of Hezbollah fighters. Mikati “expressed readiness to deploy the army” and “fulfill its duties in coordination with international peacekeeping forces in the region,” Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.
— Inflaming Iran: Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, released an English-language video aimed at the Iranian public, saying, “The people of Iran should know — Israel stands with you.” He also reiterated his threats against Iran’s regime, saying, “There is nowhere we will not go to protect our people and protect our country.”
— Hamas official killed: Hamas said Monday that its leader in Lebanon, Fatah Sharif, had been killed with his family in an airstrike on a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military said he had coordinated Hamas’ ties with Hezbollah. The main United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said Monday that Sharif had been an agency employee but was placed on leave without pay in March after it received allegations “about his political activities.”
— Hezbollah’s future: Sheikh Naim Qassem, deputy secretary-general of Hezbollah, said in a televised address Monday that the group would name a leader to replace Hassan Nasrallah “at the closest opportunity.” Israel killed Nasrallah on Friday in a bombardment in a densely populated neighborhood near Beirut and launched dozens more attacks on Hezbollah targets Sunday.
— Beirut blast: Israel said it was behind a blast in Beirut that hit a residential building overnight, in the first known Israeli attack in Lebanon’s capital since Israel and Hezbollah fought a war in 2006. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a militant group based in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip that is mostly known for a string of airline hijackings and bombings decades ago, said that three of its members had been killed in the attack.
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