Israel warned Iran on Monday that no country in the Middle East was beyond its reach, implying a land invasion of Lebanon after assassinating the leader of the Tehran-backed Hezbollah group, one of its main adversaries, in a Beirut suburb last week.
“There is nowhere we will not go to protect our people and our country,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a three-minute English video clip addressed to the Iranian people.
Nasrallah’s assassination on Friday, the most powerful leader in Tehran’s “Axis of Resistance” against Israeli and US interests in the Middle East, dealt Hezbollah and Iran one of their most devastating blows in decades.
After two weeks of intense airstrikes and a string of assassinations of Hezbollah commanders, Israel, which has been training troops for a ground invasion, hinted at a land invasion in Lebanon.
Speaking to troops stationed along Israel’s northern border, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel would go to any length to ensure the return of citizens who had fled Hezbollah rockets during nearly a year of border warfare.
“The removal of Nasrallah is a significant step, but it is not the final one. To ensure the return of Israel’s northern communities, we will use all of our capabilities, including yours.
According to the Washington Post, an unidentified US official said Israel had already informed the US that it was planning a ground operation that could begin soon.
According to the official, the operation would be smaller in scale than Israel’s 2006 war against Hezbollah and would focus on border community security.
When asked about the reports, US President Joe Biden, who has had little success urging Israel to limit its military operations, called for a cease-fire, telling reporters, “I’m comfortable with them stopping.”
The Pentagon referred reporters to Israel with questions about any land offensive.
HEZBOLLAH SAYS IT IS PREPARED FOR INVASION
In his first public speech since Israeli airstrikes killed Nasrallah last week, Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem said his fighters were ready to face a ground invasion and defeat its objectives.
“The resistance forces are ready for a ground engagement,” he stated from an undisclosed location.
As he spoke, Israeli airstrikes in Beirut and elsewhere in Lebanon continued, extending a two-week-old campaign that has killed several Hezbollah commanders while also killing approximately 1,000 civilians and forcing one million people to flee their homes, according to the Lebanese government.
The death toll from an Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese town of Ain Deleb has risen to 45, Lebanon’s health ministry announced on Monday. Rescuers stood atop a collapsed building.
“We are rescuing these people, pulling out the living, the torn apart, and the martyrs,” explained Mazin al-Khatib.
Nasrallah’s assassination, combined with the assassinations and systematic attacks on the group’s communications devices, is the most devastating blow to the Shi’ite movement since Iran established it in 1982 to combat Israel.
Nasrallah transformed Hezbollah into Lebanon’s most powerful military and political force, with a presence throughout the Middle East.
Now it must replace a charismatic, towering leader who was a hero to millions of supporters for standing up to Israel despite the fact that the West labeled him a terrorist mastermind.
Qassem stated that they would “choose a secretary-general for the party at the earliest opportunity … and fill the leadership and positions on a permanent basis” .
He stated that Hezbollah had continued to fire rockets as far as 150 kilometers (93 miles) into Israeli territory.
“We’re doing the bare minimum… “We understand that the battle may be long,” he said. “We will win as we did in the liberation of 2006,” he added, referring to the previous major conflict between the two adversaries.
Israel, which has also assassinated leaders of the Palestinian militant group Hamas during the Gaza war, has stated that it will do whatever it takes to safely return its citizens to evacuated communities along its northern border.
Hours before Qassem spoke, Hamas reported that an Israeli airstrike had killed Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin, its leader in Lebanon, along with his wife, son, and daughter in Tyre on Monday.
Another faction, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, reported that three of its leaders were killed in a strike in Beirut’s Kola district, the first so close to the city center.
Israeli attacks on militant targets in Lebanon are part of a larger conflict that extends from the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the occupied West Bank to Iranian-backed groups in Yemen and Iraq. The escalation has sparked concerns that the United States and Iran will be drawn into the conflict.
Israel’s most recent actions indicated that it had no intention of slowing down its advanced military machine even after Nasrallah was eliminated.
Netanyahu accused the Iranian government of plunging the Middle East “deeper into war” at the expense of its own people, bringing them “closer to the abyss”.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said Tehran would not let any of Israel’s “criminal acts” go unanswered, referring to the deaths of Nasrallah and an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps deputy commander, Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan, who were killed in the same strikes.
Despite concerns about heavy civilian casualties, Israel’s closest ally, the United States, has remained committed to its support.
And, while Arab states have condemned Israel’s actions, none have taken concrete steps to pressure it to limit its warplanes, infuriating Beirut residents like Abou Imad.
“You are watching as they (Israel) take over all the Arab countries and take us all,” according to him. “This indifference is shameful, for the Lebanese and Palestinian people.”
The next phase of the war against Lebanon will begin soon, according to the Israeli defense minister. The next phase of the war along Lebanon’s southern border is set to begin soon, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Monday, as at least two US newspapers reported that special forces had already made brief incursions.
“The next stage of the war against Hezbollah will begin soon,” Gallant told a meeting of local council heads in northern Israel, according to a statement from his office. He stated that the next phase would help to achieve the war goal of returning residents evacuated from the area to their homes.
