Israel preparing for possible Lebanon ground incursion: Army chief

File photo:Prime Minister Netanyahu, Defense Minister Gallant and IDF chief of staff Herzl Halevi. Credit: Kobi Gideon, GPO.

The Israeli military is preparing for a possible ground incursion into Lebanon, its top general said on Wednesday.

“You hear the jets overhead; we have been striking all day,” Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, Chief of the General Staff, told troops while visiting the northern border, according to a military press release. “This is both to prepare the ground for your possible entry and to continue degrading Hezbollah.”

It is the second time Wednesday that a top Israeli general has said that a ground operation may be imminent. Israel’s top general in the north, Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin, said that the military “must be fully prepared for maneuvers.”

It also comes just hours after the Israel Defense Forces said it was calling up two reserve brigades because of the conflict with Hezbollah.

Halevi told troops that in order to return 60,000 Israelis to their homes in the north, “we are preparing the process of a maneuver.”

It “means your military boots, your maneuvering boots, will enter enemy territory, enter villages that Hezbollah has prepared as large military outposts, with underground infrastructure, staging points, and launchpads into our territory and carry out attacks on Israeli civilians,” he said.

“Your entry into those areas with force, your encounter with Hezbollah operatives, will show them what it means to face a professional, highly skilled, and battle-experienced force. You are coming in much stronger and far more experienced than they are. You will go in, destroy the enemy there, and decisively destroy their infrastructure. These are the things that will allow us to safely return the residents of the north afterward.”

This development comes after a Hezbollah missile was  intercepted near Israel’s economic center Tel Aviv , the first fired by the militant group to reach close to the city, the Israeli military said. Hezbollah said it had targeted the headquarters of Israel’s intelligence service Mossad.

Israel and Hezbollah have been trading waves of strikes as their conflict escalates, forcing tens of thousands in Lebanon to flee their homes. Israel’s military has vowed to speed up its “offensive operations” against Hezbollah without reprieve.

Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden said “all-out war” is possible in the Middle East but that the window is still open to pull the region back from the brink of escalating conflict.