Israel has informed the US that it intends to introduce a limited zone in Lebanon, US officials said.
The operation could begin as soon as Monday, an official previously told CBS affiliate BBC America.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant earlier said the military was ready for action on the ground, telling troops near the Lebanese border that Israel was ready to use “air, sea and land” forces to attack Hezbollah.
Hezbollah’s deputy leader said the group was prepared for any Israeli occupation inside Lebanon.
There have been international calls for a ban, with the head of the UN and the EU’s foreign policy chief asking Israel to refrain from any further incursions.
The Lebanese army pushed back troops stationed on its southern border to at least 5km (3 miles) north, according to the Reuters news agency, which cited a Lebanese security source.
Gallant told the Israeli soldiers at the border that the Israeli soldiers will use all the means at their disposal to allow displaced people to return to their homes in the north of the country.
In a short video, he said the “elimination” of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut on Friday was “a very important step, but not everything”.
He added that “everything that needs to be done – will be done” and that “we will use all the power from the air, sea and land”.
Several explosions were heard in the capital, Beirut, on Monday.
They came after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) ordered residents to evacuate “immediately” from three areas south of Beirut on Monday evening.
In a post on social media, IDF Arab spokesman Avichay Adraee said: “He is located near the interests and locations of the Hezbollah terrorists, so the IDF will take strong action against them.”
The New York Times previously reported that Israeli commando units had already briefly entered Lebanese territory to prepare for a possible wider attack.
The mayor of Jdeidet Marjayoun, a predominantly Christian Lebanese town less than 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from the border, told Reuters on Monday that two locals had received calls apparently from the Israeli army telling them to leave the area immediately.
The deputy head of Hezbollah, Sheikh Naim Qassem, said they are ready to attack Israel. He described the group’s attacks on Israel so far as “minor”, adding that the war could be long.
The member states of the European Union have requested an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said “any military intervention will worsen the situation and should be avoided”.
UN chief Antonio Guterres “does not want to see any kind of ground attack” on Lebanon by Israel, the secretary general’s spokesman said.
On Monday, US President Joe Biden said “we must stop fighting now”.
“I know more than you do and I’m comfortable if they stop,” Biden told reporters when asked if he was comfortable with Israel’s plans to enter the border.
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy told reporters that “the best way to end the conflict is quickly”.
Meanwhile, Israel and Hamas both confirmed the killing of the head of Hamas in Lebanon, Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin, in Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli military said Sherif was “responsible for linking Hamas terrorists in Lebanon with the Hezbollah group”.
Another Israeli strike in the central Beirut neighborhood of Kola early Monday killed three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Palestinian armed group said in a statement.
The statement named those killed as military security chief Mohammad Abdel-Aal, army commander Imad Odeh and fighter Adel Rahman Abdel-Aal.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) director of communications in Lebanon, Jinane Saad, told the BBC that “we really don’t know where it is safe or not” after the strike in the Kola area.
“What is safe today may not be safe an hour or tomorrow,” he said.
Israeli warplanes also attacked the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeidah in Yemen on Sunday, causing huge explosions.
Cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah previously escalated on October 8, 2023 – after an unprecedented attack on Israel by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip – when Hezbollah opened fire on Israeli positions, in coordination with the Palestinians.
However, things have escalated significantly in recent weeks.
Hezbollah suffered many casualties from exploding pagers and walkie-talkies, a wave of assassinations of Hezbollah military commanders, devastating airstrikes that killed civilians – and the use of bombs detonated in Beirut, which killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday.
Lebanese officials say more than 1,000 people have been killed in the past two weeks, and about a million may have been left homeless.
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