Israel conducts ground raids in southern Lebanon ahead of a larger possible invasion

Caption

Israeli soldiers are deployed in the Upper Galilee region of northern Israel near the border with Lebanon on Sunday. / AFP via Getty Images

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli commandos conducted small ground raids inside southern Lebanon on Monday, and there were indications that Israel may send more forces into the area, a senior U.S. official told NPR.

Israel has also conducted brief intelligence-gathering raids inside southern Lebanon this week, as it prepares for a limited ground offensive, an official in the Middle East told NPR.

“Everything is on the table,” the official in the region said about a possibility of a ground incursion. That official and the senior U.S. official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the operation.

The Lebanese army moved back from some checkpoints at the border with Israel amid intense artillery shelling by Israeli forces and reports of an Israeli incursion. A Lebanese army official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak publicly, told NPR that it was a "redeployment" from forward positions vulnerable to an Israeli incursion.

The moves follow days of intensifying fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which began trading attacks back and forth across the Israel-Lebanon border after the Oct. 7 Hamas-led assault on Israel. Israeli strikes across Lebanon have killed more than 1,000 people in less than two weeks and forced many to flee their homes, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry. The strikes have targeted Hezbollah and its weapons, killing leader Hassan Nasrallah and several top officials, but have also killed civilians.

Israel says it will keep targeting Hezbollah until Israeli residents can safely return to their homes in northern Israel near the Lebanese border.

U.S. officials have estimated that Israel is not prepared for a major ground offensive inside Lebanon because its troops are stretched thin following a year of ground operations inside Gaza.

Tamir Hayman, who served as the head of Israel’s military intelligence directorate until 2021, said in an interview on Israeli Army Radio on Monday that Israel’s airstrikes in Lebanon had successfully knocked Hezbollah off balance.

But he said Israel should decide soon whether to launch a ground invasion, and for what purpose: to create a permanent security buffer zone that Israel would occupy long term, with much international opposition, or only to remain temporarily to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure?

“Are we there in order to reach a deal and then leaving? Are we there in order to stay?” Hayman said, referring to the choices Israel must make.

Hezbollah’s deputy leader, Naim Kassem, said in a televised address that "the resistance forces are ready for a ground engagement."

The U.S. is sending additional forces to the region

The senior U.S. official told NPR that the Pentagon will send a “few thousand” more troops to the Middle East, focused on air defense capabilities.

The U.S. is concerned about retaliation to Israel’s moves by Iran and Iranian-supported militias in the region. Such a retaliation could threaten U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria.

Israel’s strikes in Yemen offer a message to Iran

Israel’s conflict with the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen is also intensifying.

On Saturday, the Houthis, the main military group in Yemen, launched a ballistic missile toward central Israel, saying it was targeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s airplane returning from addressing the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Netanyahu landed in Israel shortly before air raid sirens wailed at the airport and throughout central Israel. The Israeli military said it intercepted the missile midair.

On Sunday, Israel’s military said it sent dozens of fighter jets and refueling aircraft more than 1,000 miles away to Yemen, where it said it bombed power plants and a seaport used by the Houthis to import oil for military purposes. The Houthis said the areas hit were civilian targets and that at least four people were killed and dozens wounded in the Israeli strikes.

Israeli security analysts said Israel’s bombing campaign in Yemen was a message to Iran, showing Israel’s long-range flight capability as a tacit warning to Iran that it, too, was within Israel’s reach.

This is a developing story that may be updated.

Tom Bowman contributed reporting from Washington, D.C.; Jane Arraf contributed reporting from Beirut.