Lebanon strikes and prepares for a ground attack

An Israeli army chief has told troops that major airstrikes in Lebanon against the militant group Hezbollah could pave the way for them to “enter enemy territory”.

“You can hear the jets flying overhead; we have been striking all day. This is to prepare a place where you can enter and continue to humiliate Hezbollah,” said Lt General Herzi Halevi.

Lebanon’s health minister said more than 50 people were killed in Wednesday’s strikes, which the Israeli military said targeted Hezbollah’s intelligence unit, as well as explosives and weapons stores.

Diplomatic efforts are increasing to defuse the conflict, with France and the United States proposing a 21-day ceasefire.

What Lt General Halevi said is the clearest indication yet from a senior official that an invasion of Lebanon may be imminent.

“We keep hitting them and hitting them everywhere,” he told soldiers of the 7th Brigade who were part of an exercise on Israel’s northern border on Wednesday – in a statement quoted by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

“The objective is very clear – to safely return the citizens of the north. To achieve that, we are preparing a process of action, which means that your military boots… will enter the enemy’s territory.”

Lt General Halevi said the army will “destroy the enemy” and its infrastructure.

There is no immediate sign that Israel is ready to invade Lebanon and the US Pentagon said on Wednesday that it does not appear to be “imminent”.

But the IDF chief of staff’s comments were published shortly after the IDF called two teams to monitor “operations in the northern area”.

When the BBC team visited the town on the Israeli border on Wednesday, the soldiers said that Hezbollah must retreat from the border, to the areas north of the Litani River, as required by the UN resolution passed in 2006.

Israel’s allies, including the US, say they are working to avoid an endless war in the region.

Several media reports on Wednesday said that senior US officials were trying to temporarily end the fighting between the two sides.

French President Emmanuel Macron met with US President Joe Biden at the UN General Assembly in New York to discuss efforts to achieve a ceasefire.

Shortly after the talks, France said the two countries proposed a 21-day “temporary suspension” to “allow negotiations”.

“There will be no war in Lebanon. That is why we urge Israel to stop this escalation in Lebanon and Hezbollah to stop firing missiles at Israel,” Mr Macron told the UN.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate ceasefire, saying “hell is breaking loose”.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, said he was grateful for the officials’ efforts to avoid tensions but would use “all the means at our disposal, in accordance with international law, to achieve our goals”.

Border skirmishes continued on Wednesday, with Hezbollah claiming to have targeted the headquarters of Israel’s Mossad spy agency with a missile fired near Tel Aviv – the first time Hezbollah has targeted a populated area.

It was intercepted by air defense and there were no reports of damage or injuries. The launcher was then destroyed in an airstrike, the IDF said.

The IDF spokesperson, Lt Col Nadav Shoshani, said that the missile was aimed at “public areas in Tel Aviv”, and said that “the Mossad headquarters is not in that area”.

Hezbollah also fired several rockets into northern Israel, wounding two.

Meanwhile, the IDF said Israeli warplanes hit more than 280 “Hezbollah terrorist targets” in recent airstrikes in Lebanon.

Lebanon’s Health Minister Firass Abiad told the media that the strikes killed at least 51 people and wounded 223, without specifying how many were civilians or soldiers.

The health ministry reported that the Israeli attack killed many people in southern areas including Joun, in the Chouf mountains near the southern city of Sidon, and Maaysrah, in another mountainous area north of Beirut, and in the northern Bekaa Valley.

More than 600 people have been killed across Lebanon since Monday, when Israel began a major campaign to destroy infrastructure built by Hezbollah since it last fought a war in 2006.

Another 90,000 people in Lebanon have recently been displaced, adding to the 110,000 who fled their homes before the escalation, according to the UN. About 40,000 are living in shelters across the country.

Nearly a year of deadly cross-border fighting sparked by the war in Gaza has also displaced some 70,000 people from northern Israel, which the Israeli government and its military want to confirm.

Hezbollah says it is attacking Israel in support of its Palestinian ally, Hamas, and will not stop until the ceasefire in Gaza is lifted. Both groups are supported by Iran and banned as terrorist organizations by Israel, the UK and other countries.

It comes after an unprecedented wave of attacks by Hezbollah.

Last week, 39 people were killed and thousands injured when pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah members to communicate exploded in two waves in Lebanon. It is believed that Israel is responsible for these incidents.

Then, an Israeli airstrike on Friday in the group’s stronghold of Dahieh, south of Beirut, ended the series of commanders of its main army, the Radwan Force. The group confirmed that one of its top military leaders, Ibrahim Aqil, was among the 55 people killed.