Israeli troops have advanced into Lebanon, the military has announced in a statement, as it launches an anticipated ground offensive.
Israel’s military reported early on Tuesday that its forces had begun “targeted ground raids” on villages in southern Lebanon.
The incursions, backed by air strikes and artillery, began “a few hours ago” targeting Hezbollah “in villages close to the border” with Israel, according to the statement, adding that the raids were “limited, localised and targeted” against Hezbollah.
The sounds of air strikes were heard throughout the Lebanese capital, Beirut, and smoke rose from its southern suburbs, strongholds for Hezbollah, shortly after Israel ordered residents of three buildings to evacuate.
However, Hezbollah media relations official Muhammad Afif told Al Jazeera that Israeli forces have not entered Lebanon.
“All Zionist claims that [Israeli] occupation forces have entered Lebanon are false,” he said.
There have been no reports of direct clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters, who were last involved in ground combat during a monthlong war in 2006.
“Our fighters are ready to confront enemy forces that dare or attempt to enter Lebanon,” Afif said.
The purported ground incursion came shortly after it was approved by Israeli political leaders and marks a new stage in Israel’s war against Hezbollah in its northern neighbour Lebanon.
The Iranian-backed Lebanese armed group said in its own statement released early on Tuesday that it had targeted Israeli troops across the border in Metula with artillery fire.
Rising confidence
Hezbollah began low-intensity strikes on targets in northern Israel one day after Israel launched its war on Gaza last October following an attack led by the Palestinian group Hamas.
However, Israel last month shifted its focus from Gaza to its northern frontier with Lebanon, with the stated aim of allowing the return of tens of thousands of Israeli civilians to their homes.
However, its operations against , including the detonation of electronic communications devices that killed 39 and injured thousands, and its subsequent killing of leader Hassan Nasrallah, appear to have raised Israel’s confidence that it may now have the opportunity to all but destroy its longstanding enemy in Lebanon.
Reflecting the bullish mood in Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Iran in a speech late on Monday: “There is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach.”
Some Israeli analysts expressed concern regarding overconfidence.
“I really hope we are talking about a limited ground operation,” Israel’s former justice minister Yossi Beilin told Al Jazeera from Tel Aviv.
“We know it’s very difficult to control from the past even if the government is sincere in its wish to end it quickly and to achieve the main aim which is to curtail Hezbollah combatants and allow Israelis to go back to their villages in the north.”
The launch of ground operations inside Lebanon appears to have been agreed between Israel and its main ally, the United States, despite earlier calls from Washington for restraint.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant spoke on the phone on Monday, the Pentagon said.
“They agreed on the necessity of dismantling attack infrastructure along the border to ensure that Lebanese Hezbollah cannot conduct October 7-style attacks on Israel’s northern communities,” it said in a statement.
Austin reaffirmed that a diplomatic resolution was necessary to allow civilians on both sides of the border to return safely to their homes, the statement added.
Litani River
Tens of thousands of people on both sides of the Israeli-Lebanon border have fled their homes over the past year.
However, the situation has intensified as Israel has escalated its attacks. More than 1,000 people have been killed in the past two weeks in a wave of ferocious air assaults, mostly in southern and eastern Lebanon, as the Israeli military has targeted Hezbollah’s leadership.
On Friday, veteran leader Nasrallah was killed in an air strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut, while several other top commanders have also been hit.
However, Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets and missiles at Israeli targets.
On Monday, in the group’s first public broadcast since Nasrallah’s assassination, Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem said the group was prepared for any potential Israeli ground incursion and a long war.
When asked about reports that Israel was preparing for a “limited” ground invasion of Lebanon, United States President Joe Biden called for a ceasefire.
Asked if he was comfortable with Israel’s plan, Biden replied: “I’m comfortable with them stopping.”
However, he did not elaborate on any plans to end the conflict, or discuss US supplies of weapons and military aid to Israel.
Lebanon’s acting Prime Minister Najib Mikati has said the government is ready to fully implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which aimed to end Hezbollah’s armed presence south of the Litani River as part of an agreement to stop war with Israel.
