The Israeli army has begun an intense artillery bombardment on Lebanese towns near the border, such as Wazzani, Khiam and Marjayoun, shortly after informing its American counterparts of the “imminent” launch of a ground invasion. The Lebanese Armed Forces are already withdrawing five kilometers from the border. In an exceptional decision, the Israeli army has declared the towns of Metula, Misgav Am and Kfar Giladi a “closed military zone”, in which entry is “strictly prohibited”, after days of accumulating troops on the border and carrying out small incursions on the ground. Lebanese. He has also ordered civilians in three parts of Beirut’s southern suburb to leave “urgently” and move at least half a kilometer away. One of the areas marked for evacuation by the Israeli military spokesman covers several properties, the largest number in a year of clashes between Israel and Hezbollah. The United States will send thousands more troops to the region as a deterrent in defense of its ally.
Everything seems to indicate that it is the prelude to what the Israeli Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, called this Monday “the next phase of the war against Hezbollah”, which “will begin soon” and “will be an important factor in achieving the objective of war: returning northern residents to their homes.” As Israeli officials have declared to their American counterparts, the invasion will be “limited” in nature, with the aim of attacking the infrastructure of the Shiite militia Hezbollah in the area after two weeks of bombings that have left more than a thousand dead and arrived for the first time. time this Monday to the center of the capital. Faced with the foreseeable imminence of a decision that can only aggravate the crisis in the Middle East, last-minute diplomatic calls to avoid it are multiplying.
Israeli officials have discussed their ground offensive plans with Washington, as confirmed by State Department spokesman Matthew Miller in his daily press conference. In those talks, Israel has informed its counterparts that these are “limited operations” focused on Hezbollah’s infrastructure, he added. “We have been briefed on a number of operations, I have seen reports on ground operations. We’ve had some conversations with them about that. We’re told these are limited operations focused on Hezbollah infrastructure near the border. But we are in continuous conversations with them about the issue,” Miller said.
Washington is trying to pressure Israel to reduce the scope of the operation and prevent it from spiraling out of control or turning into a prolonged occupation of southern Lebanon, like the one that took place between 1982 and 2000, launched with the same public objective: to remove from the border to the enemy, then the militias of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and which ended up giving birth to Hezbollah.
But Washington does not disavow the Israeli operation. “Sometimes military pressure can support diplomacy. But military pressure can also lead to miscalculations and unintended consequences. “We are in talks with Israel about all of these factors right now,” Miller said.
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The US president, Joe Biden, reiterated again this Monday that the ceasefire is the best solution to the crisis. Asked, during an appearance before the American media to talk about the North Carolina floods, if he felt comfortable with the possibility of an invasion, he responded: “I am more aware than you can imagine, and I am comfortable that stop. We should have a ceasefire now.”
Washington maintains constant contact with the Israeli authorities and other Arab and European allies regarding the crisis, in which it has positioned itself on the side of its Israeli ally even more clearly than during the invasion of Gaza. Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared this Monday, during a State Department conference, that Washington will continue to collaborate with its partners in the region and around the world to achieve a diplomatic solution. According to Miller, Blinken also spoke this Monday with his British counterpart, David Lammy, after having also spoken with the Frenchman Jean Noël Barrot on Sunday.
The United States and France proposed a 21-day truce last week that should open the door to negotiations to resolve the situation on the Blue Line, the demarcation between northern Israel and southern Lebanon. There, Israeli forces and Hezbollah have exchanged fire since the start of the war in Gaza almost a year ago and more than 160,000 people have had to flee their homes on both sides of the border. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded with an incendiary speech at the United Nations General Assembly and approval of the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah, the zenith of an intense offensive that began with the detonation of thousands of pagers and walkies. -talkies, left 550 dead on its most intense day and has caused hundreds of thousands of displaced people. The bombings have left more than 120 dead in the last few hours, a figure similar to the daily deaths in Gaza.
This Monday, Barrot made a last desperate appeal from Beirut to avoid the invasion. “I urge the parties to take advantage [la propuesta de alto el fuego] now,” he said at a press conference in the Lebanese capital. “This initiative is still on the table. There is still hope, but there is little time,” he said, calling on Israel to “refrain from any ground incursion” and asking both parties to accept a “ceasefire.”
The Israeli Defense Minister has not been the only one to speak of a “next phase” of the conflict, in what seems a clear allusion to the incursion into Lebanese territory, just in a meeting with the mayors of the border towns in northern Israel. , from where some 66,000 people have been evacuated. The army reported late in the afternoon that the head of the Northern Command of the Israeli army, Ori Gordin, has recently approved “the plans for the coming days”, after the 188 Brigade – which has fought for months in Gaza – to carry out “training near the northern border and at the command headquarters” and the so-called community defense units to carry out drills to respond to various possibilities, such as an infiltration by Hezbollah militiamen, similar to the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, or the massive launch of projectiles.
As tensions continue to rise, the Pentagon has mobilized more US armed forces for a possible deployment. “Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has increased deployment readiness orders for additional U.S. forces to respond to various contingencies,” spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said. These forces, he specified, number in the thousands and cover a “wide range of capabilities and missions.”
