Troops said to enter Hezbollah tunnels with pre-invasion forays into Lebanon
Wall Street Journal report latest to indicate soldiers making small-scale incursions across border as IDF readies for possibility of wider offensive
Israeli troops have entered Hezbollah tunnels dug near the border with Israel as part of small-scale forays into southern Lebanon, as it gears up for a threatened ground incursion, according to a report in a US newspaper Monday.
Reports in foreign press in recent days have indicated that Israel Defense Forces soldiers have been carrying out limited cross-border raids to collect information or damage Hezbollah’s capabilities to attack Israel.
According to the Monday report in The Wall Street Journal, the missions, described as “targeted,” have involved special forces entering a network of subterranean warrens Hezbollah is widely understood to have dug near the Blue Line separating Israel from Lebanon.
The report, which cited unnamed sources familiar with the matter, said the raids have taken place over the past months, as well as more recently, with troops “probing” and gathering intelligence, as activity ramps up ahead of a possible ground offensive.
Israel has stepped up fighting against Hezbollah in recent weeks as it seeks to push the group away from the border and halt nearly a year of rocket and drone attacks on northern Israel that have left a swath of Israeli towns scarred and uninhabited.
The push has included heavy airstrikes on Hezbollah’s leadership, including a Friday strike that killed its chief, Hassan Nasrallah, attacks on weapons stores and missile launchers and actions of a more covert nature, such as a wave of electronic device explosions that killed dozens of members of the Iran-backed group, but which has not been claimed by Israel.
According to The Wall Street Journal, a wider troop incursion could occur as early as this week, significantly ramping up fighting, though some have interpreted increasingly bellicose comments from Israel on the possibility of a ground war as part of a campaign meant to pressure a weakened Hezbollah into withdrawing as part of a ceasefire.
Sources cited by the newspaper were quoted as saying the timing could still change, with Israel under heavy pressure from the US to hold back.
Since this month’s escalation, with Israeli airstrikes on the terror group this week killing more than 700 people in Lebanon, the US has repeatedly voiced opposition to any IDF ground invasion to target Hezbollah, calling instead for a diplomatic solution.
Speaking to troops from infantry and armored brigades in northern Israel on Monday, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant strongly hinted that the army was preparing to launch a ground offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“The elimination of Nasrallah is a very important step, but it is not everything. We will use all the capabilities we have,” Gallant said. “You are part of this effort.”
IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi was even clearer in comments last week, telling soldiers the army was readying to put boots on the ground in Lebanon.
The troops, he said, would “enter enemy territory, enter villages that Hezbollah has prepared as large military outposts, with underground infrastructure, staging points, and launchpads into our territory [from which Hezbollah intends] to carry out attacks on Israeli civilians.”
Hezbollah deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem vowed on Monday that his organization is ready for any potential ground operation by Israeli troops, in the first speech by an official of the terror group since its leader was killed.
“We will face any possibility and we are ready if the Israelis decide to enter by land and the resistance forces are ready for a ground engagement,” Qassem said in prerecorded remarks.
On Saturday, two US officials told ABC News that Israel does not appear to have decided whether to launch a full ground operation into Lebanon, but that it would likely be limited in scope if it does.
According to the report, the IDF believes that beyond airstrikes and assassinations, allowing residents to return home will also require damaging Hezbollah’s command and control, destroying its capabilities in the border area, and removing the threat of an invasion planned by the terror group’s elite Radwan Force.
Hezbollah is thought to have a tunnel network stretching hundreds of kilometers, Tal Beeri, an expert on underground warfare, told The Times of Israel in January.
In late 2018 and early 2019, Israel launched an operation to destroy a series of tunnels it said it discovered that stretched from Lebanese villages into Israel. Among them was a passageway with electricity, a rail system to move equipment and garbage and exit stairs, the army said at the time.
There have been several incidents of cross-border ground confrontations since Hezbollah-led forces began attacking communities and military posts in northern Israel on October 8, purportedly to support Hamas during the war in Gaza.
In April, four IDF soldiers were wounded in a blast that occurred as troops operated inside Lebanese territory. The military said at the time that the incident took place during “operational activity” carried out by troops of the Golani Brigade’s reconnaissance unit and the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit, on the Lebanese side of the border, several hundred meters from Israel’s fence.
On Friday, before the Beirut strike that killed Nasrallah, the military said that it had “great confidence” in its ability to carry out a ground maneuver, following experience gained by troops during the past 11 months of fighting in the Gaza Strip.
The IDF indicated that a ground offensive in Lebanon had been fully planned out, and it was being practiced by troops even as fighting was ongoing on several fronts.
The plans included operations in areas near the border as well as deep within Lebanon, according to the military. Still, officials have said the IDF aims for a ground operation to be as short as possible.
Once the fighting is over, the IDF said that it would need to enforce any ceasefire agreement with firepower and prevent Hezbollah from reestablishing itself close to Israeli border communities.
Also on Friday, the IDF said it had completed the mobilization of two reserve brigades — the Etzioni and Alon brigades — that were sent to northern Israel to bolster troops there, given the possibility of a ground offensive.
Emanuel Fabian and agencies contributed to this report.
