Israel’s military chief told troops to prepare for a possible ground offensive in Lebanon as heavy Israeli airstrikes continued for a third day and militants targeted the cities of Tel Aviv and Eilat.
The strikes on Lebanon, and the subsequent reduction in the military power of the Shiite militia group Hezbollah, have laid the foundation for a possible ground incursion, Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) chief of staff Herzi Halevi told troops on Wednesday.
“You hear the jets overhead; we have been striking all day,” the IDF chief said as he visited a troop exercise on the northern border, according to a military statement.
“This is both to prepare the ground for your possible entry and to continue degrading Hezbollah,” he said.
Earlier Ori Gordin, the IDF commander for the north, said the army was mobilising two more reserve brigades for missions in the northern area and that troops must be ready for a ground manoeuvre.
“We have entered a new phase in the operation,” he said.
Israel must “change the security situation, and we must be fully prepared for manoeuvres and actions.”
Israel’s goal is to return the some 60,000 people displaced from their homes in the north due to the near daily attacks by Iran-backed Hezbollah.
“I would like to see a ceasefire and the return home of Israelis to the homes in the north and southern Lebanese, to their homes in southern Lebanon,” Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Danon told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in New York later on Wednesday.
“That’s what we all want to achieve. It will happen either after a war or before a war.
“We hope it will be before,” Danon said, as he also confirmed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would arrive in the U.S. on Thursday.
The cross-border clashes have taken place for more than 11 months and have also displaced thousands of Lebanese from their homes.
Hezbollah sources said the militia fighters were “ready to confront any possible ground invasion.”
In New York, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said a proposal prepared with the U.S. for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon would be presented “very soon.”
“The situation in Lebanon today may reach the point of no return,” Barrot said at a UN Security Council meeting.
“We’re beyond escalation.”
“War is not inevitable. A diplomatic solution is indeed possible.
“In recent days we have worked with our American partners on a temporary ceasefire platform of 21 days to allow for negotiations,” Barrot said, adding that the plan would be made public “very soon.”
“We are counting on both parties to accept it without delay,” Barrot said.
“We are working with other countries on a proposal that we hope will lead to calm and enable discussions to a diplomatic solution,” said U.S. Deputy Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood minutes later.
“We encourage the Security Council to lend its support for these diplomatic efforts in the coming days.”
Later on Wednesday, U.S. President Joe Biden and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, called for a settlement on the border “that ensures safety and security to enable civilians to return to their homes.”
The two leaders said in a joint statement released by the White House that they “have worked together in recent days on a joint call for a temporary ceasefire to give diplomacy a chance to succeed and avoid further escalations across the border.”
“The statement we have negotiated is now endorsed by the United States, Australia, Canada, European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. We call for broad endorsement and for the immediate support of the Governments of Israel and Lebanon.”
Israeli strikes on Wednesday morning killed 51 people and injured more than 200, the Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said.
Overall some 600 people have been killed since the escalation began on Monday, the ministry said.
The latest attacks struck towns and villages in the south of the country and also north of Beirut.
Front line action saw not only more Israeli strikes in Lebanon, but a Hezbollah strike – for the first time – on the Israeli metropolis of Tel Aviv.
The IDF said it intercepted the rocket.
In the evening the southern port city of Eilat was attacked by two drones.
One was intercepted while the other hit the harbour and exploded, injuring two people and sparking a fire, Hagari said.
Reports said they could have been launched from Iraq. Hagari did not comment on that.
The Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have repeatedly targeted the Israeli southern port city.
But Halevi, acknowledging Hezbollah’s unprecedented rocket attack on Tel Aviv, said: “Today, Hezbollah expanded its range of fire, and later today, they will receive a very strong response. Prepare yourselves.”
Hezbollah declared that the rocket was aimed at the headquarters of Israel’s foreign intelligence service Mossad in a suburb of Tel Aviv.
Mossad, it said, was responsible for the assassination of several of the militia’s leaders and for the evidently coordinated mass explosions of communication devices used by Hezbollah in Lebanon last week.
Around 110 missiles were fired from Lebanon and some of them were intercepted, the Israeli military said.
One rocket fell near an assisted living facility near Safed in the north but there were no injuries.
Observers and ex-military personnel in Lebanon affirmed the Israeli military’s accusation that Hezbollah is hiding weapons in residential areas.
“(Hezbollah) has no barracks or places to store their weapons because Israel will detect them,” said former Lebanese army brigadier Wehbe Katischa, who served in southern Lebanon.
“That’s why their most important depots are located between houses and in mountainous areas near residential areas.”
The Hezbollah militia had an estimated 150,000 missiles in the region before the start of the Gaza war almost a year ago.
Israel’s military repeatedly said that the attacks in Lebanon would target the militia’s weapons depots.
Israel has long accused Hezbollah of hiding weapons in residential areas and of manufacturing rockets there.
The Lebanese government has tried to refute some of these accusations.
Meanwhile at least 90,530 people have been displaced since Monday, including nearly 40,000 in 283 shelters, the United Nations reported.
It said nearly 600 have been killed, including 50 children and 94 women in nearly 1,700 strikes across the country.
Humanitarian organisations urgently require at least 170 million dollars to sustain ongoing response and respond to new needs, the UN said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Wednesday that international humanitarian law made it clear that care must be taken at all times to spare the civilian population and civilian objects when carrying out military operations.