Lebanon Under Siege: Israel Unleashes Fury with 2,000 Target Strikes, Ground Campaign Intensifies
Israel’s general warned that the country’s army is preparing for a ground attack on Lebanon amid escalating conflict.
Israeli military forces (Photo: Getty)
“You hear the sound of warplanes overhead. We have been attacking all day. This is both to prepare for the possibility of your advance and to continue weakening Hezbollah,” Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, Chief of General Staff of the Israeli Army, told soldiers on September 25 when visiting the northern border area.
General Halevi told soldiers that, to bring 60,000 Israelis back home to the north, “we are preparing to act.”
“That means your military boots will enter enemy territory, entering villages that Hezbollah has prepared as large military outposts, with underground infrastructure, assembly points and launchers into our territory and carry out attacks on Israeli civilians,” Mr. Halevi added.
“Your entry into those areas by force, your encounter with the Hezbollah fighters will show them what it means to face a professional, highly skilled and combat-experienced force. You’re going in much stronger and more experienced than they are. You’re going in, you’re going in there, you’re going to destroy their infrastructure decisively. These are things that will allow We will bring the people in the north back safely afterwards,” the Israeli general told the soldiers.
This is the second time in a day that a senior Israeli general announced that a ground operation to attack Lebanon may be imminent.
Previously, Commander of the Northern Command of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Major General Uri Gordin, announced that the campaign in Lebanon had entered a “new phase”.
“We need to prepare very carefully to participate in the campaign and deploy action,” General Gordin said when visiting the 7th Brigade in northern Israel.
Avichay Adraee, a representative of the Israeli military, said the Israel Defense Forces are preparing for all options in Lebanon, including a ground operation.
He added that the IDF may conduct more large-scale airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in the coming days.
The Israel Defense Forces announced on September 25 that the Israeli army had summoned two reserve brigades to the area adjacent to the Lebanese border.
The IDF announced it had attacked 2,000 targets in Lebanon in the past 3 days. According to the Israeli military, this number includes 70 Hezbollah intelligence locations in the latest airstrike on September 25.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs cited Lebanese government figures as saying nearly 600 people have been killed and nearly 1,700 injured in Israeli airstrikes since September 23.
According to United Nations statistics, more than 90,000 people were evacuated in Lebanon as Israel continued to conduct large-scale air strikes.
Tensions between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon have escalated in recent days, after Hezbollah accused Israel of being behind a series of communications equipment explosions that left more than 30 people dead and more than 3,000 injured in Lebanon.
In an interview on September 24, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon said that Israel still prioritizes a “diplomatic solution” in Lebanon to resolve the conflict with Iran-backed Hezbollah forces.
However, Mr. Danon also said that Israel will use “other measures” to prove “we are serious.” According to the Israeli diplomat, the only way to end the conflict is “when Hezbollah is no longer on our borders”.
The fighting between Israel and Hezbollah forces raises fears of a full-scale conflict spreading throughout the region in the context of the Gaza Strip war between Israel and Hamas with no end in sight. The international community is trying to call on all sides to reduce tensions and avoid a war that gets out of control.