Israel prepares for possible ground invasion of Lebanon as strikes on Hezbollah continue

Israel’s punishing bombardment of Hezbollah targets and more in Lebanon continued Wednesday, killing dozens more in addition to the hundreds already killed and thousands injured. The Israel Defense Forces also look to be preparing a ground invasion and both the Prime Minister and his top generals warn they may soon cross into southern Lebanon. Nick Schifrin reports.
Geoff Bennett:
Israel’s military said today it’s preparing for a ground invasion of Lebanon. U.S. officials are frantically trying to avoid all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah after more than a week of unprecedented Israeli attacks on the militant group, which have killed hundreds and injured thousands more.
Nick Schifrin is here now with the details.
So, Nick, how tense is the situation along the border right now?
Nick Schifrin:
It’s extremely tense, Geoff. This has been the deadliest week in Lebanon for decades, and that violence continued today.
Israel said that it struck some 350 Hezbollah sites, including some associated with the intelligence directorate, to — quote — “make it more difficult” for Hezbollah to produce an intelligence assessment. Lebanese authorities say the strikes killed 50 on top of the more than 550 killed the previous two day.
But, meanwhile, Hezbollah continued its own strikes into Israel, including it’s hit villages near the border, wounding at least two civilians. Hezbollah also launched its first ballistic missile at Tel Aviv. It was intercepted by Israeli air defense.
But, as you said, Geoff, Israel went further today than it has in the past, calling up two reserve brigades to deploy them to the northern area along the Lebanese border. And the IDF’s chief of staff, Herzi Halevi, warn today that troops need to prepare for — quote — “possible entry into Lebanon.”
Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, Chief of Staff, Israeli Defense Forces (through interpreter): We are preparing the process of a maneuver, which means your military boots will enter enemy territory, enter villages that Hezbollah has prepared as large military outposts. You will go in, destroy the enemy there, and decisively destroy their infrastructure. These are the things that will allow us to safely return the residents of the north afterward.
Nick Schifrin:
And that is what Israel says is its goal, returning the 60,000-plus residents who have been displaced from their homes since October the 8th, when Hezbollah opened fire into Israel.
Geoff Bennett:
So what does de-escalation look like now? What is the U.S. doing to try to prevent an all-out war?
Nick Schifrin:
President Biden admitted today that an all-out war was possible. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the risk of escalation — quote — “acute.”
So they have been scrambling. And they all are in New York with the entire international community. So that makes it possible for them to have meetings with partners and allies. And Western officials, U.S. officials, tell me that those partners and allies have been Europeans, Arabs, alongside Israel.
And two U.S. officials confirmed to me that the U.S. is proposing a temporary cease-fire along the Israel-Lebanon border. It’s not ready to be announced yet. One official called it — quote — “pretty limited and short-term.”
But the idea here, Geoff, would be to stop the violence, again, temporarily, in order to try and have a conversation that they have been having for months, which is a diplomatic agreement that would push Hezbollah back past the Litani River, which on average is about six miles north of the border, beyond Hezbollah’s anti-tank weapons.
That’s really what Israel wants. And that is prescribed by Security Council Resolution 1701. So Hezbollah was already supposed to be doing that.
One of the leading partners that is helping the U.S. with this is France. They are hosting a Security Council meeting right now over Lebanon, and whose president, Emmanuel Macron, said today that he was ensuring that a diplomatic voice can be heard.
Emmanuel Macron, French President (through interpreter):
We must not, we cannot have a war in Lebanon. There cannot be a war in Lebanon. This is why we urge Israel to cease this escalation in Lebanon and to Hezbollah to cease this missile launch to Israel.
Nick Schifrin:
Senior U.S. officials tell me that they believe Hezbollah and Iran do not want an all-out war in Lebanon, but Hezbollah has to respond in a serious way to those unprecedented attacks that you mentioned at the top, especially using pagers that really hit Hezbollah fighters where they’re most vulnerable.
U.S. officials also believe that Israel is willing to go to war and obviously is trying to make it clear to everyone that it is with this announcement today and the movement, but that they’re hoping Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is willing to forego an invasion.
But it’s still not clear, Geoff, how any step that Israel could take could really get all of those residents back to their homes.
Geoff Bennett:
So what would an Israeli invasion of Lebanon look like?
Nick Schifrin:
It would be devastating, devastating to Southern Lebanon, to the people who live there, to Lebanon’s economy, which is already in shambles.
Take a listen to Lebanon’s foreign minister, Abdallah Habib, talking to the Carnegie Endowment’s Aaron David Miller.
Abdallah Bou Habib, Lebanese Foreign Minister:
It’s all destruction by destruction and nothing — and the people are hurt. Both people are hurt. Israelis are hurt. Lebanese are hurt. While we can find a solution, the more we think about it is, the United States is the key to our, I would say, salvation, if I can say, use this word.
Nick Schifrin:
Salvation, that’s an incredible word, Geoff, to hear from him, when the U.S, of course, is giving Israel the weapons that it would be using in Lebanon.
Bottom line is, though, that their hopes are on the U.S. on the West trying to get some kind of deal that would push Israel to withhold any kind of invasion and that would somehow get Hezbollah to, again, not — who doesn’t want full-scale war, but has to respond to those major attacks, that response to be under the threshold that Israel needs it to be and somehow move from that to the point where residents can get home.
But that’s a very, very difficult task.
Geoff Bennett:
Yes, more to come.
Nick Schifrin, thanks for this great reporting, as always.
Nick Schifrin:
Thank you.