Israel 'preparing for possible entry into Lebanon', army chief tells troops amid escalating air strikes

25 September 2024, 16:54 | Updated: 25 September 2024, 17:38

Israel is preparing for the possible entry of troops into Lebanon, an army chief has told soldiers.

Chief of the IDF general staff Herzi Halevi told troops that the bombing of Lebanon was "both to prepare the ground for your possible entry and to continue degrading Hezbollah."

The Israeli military said earlier that it was calling up two reserve brigades for "operational missions" in northern parts of the country and positioning them closer to the Lebanese border.

Meanwhile British nationals are being advised to get out of Lebanon "now" with PM Sir Keir Starmer saying he is "very worried" about the escalation in fighting.

Read more: Israel calls up reservists in response to rising tensions with Hezbollah as ballistic missile fired at Tel Aviv

Read more: Starmer calls for UK nationals in Lebanon to 'leave and to leave immediately' as Israel-Hezbollah conflict escalates

Mr Halevi went on: "Today, Hezbollah expanded its range of fire, and later today, they will receive a very strong response. Prepare yourselves.

"Today, we will continue, we are not stopping; we keep striking and hitting them everywhere. The goal is very clear—to safely return the residents of the north."

He said that to "achieve that", the military is "preparing the process of a manoeuvre, which means your military boots, your manoeuvring boots, will enter enemy territory, enter villages that Hezbollah has prepared as large military outposts".

The conflict intensified after 4,000 pagers carried by Hezbollah members in Lebanon exploded last Tuesday.

Just one day later, 1,000 walkie-talkies belonging to members of the group explode, in a follow-up attack that saw the blame laid at Israel's door.

Tiny amounts of explosives are thought to have been embedded in the devices during the production process, with the synchronised attack killing at least 12 people and injuring around three thousand more.

Israel and Hezbollah have been launching missiles and bombs at each other in the ensuing week, resulting in widespread destruction and deaths.

Tensions between Israel and the Lebanese militant group have steadily escalated over the last 11 months. Hezbollah has been firing rockets, missiles and drones into northern Israel in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and its ally Hamas, a fellow Iran-backed militant group.

Israel has responded with increasingly heavy airstrikes and the targeted killing of Hezbollah commanders while threatening a wider operation.

Troops sent to Cyprus as plans drawn up to evacuate Britons from Lebanon

Hezbollah launched a ballistic missile at Tel Aviv early on Wednesday, in a further escalation after Israel carried out strikes on Lebanon that killed hundreds of people.

The Israeli military said it intercepted the surface-to-surface missile, which set off air raid sirens in Tel Aviv and across central Israel, and there were no reports of casualties or damage.

The military said it struck the site in southern Lebanon from which the projectile was launched.

Hezbollah said it fired a Qader 1 ballistic missile targeting the headquarters of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, which it blames for a recent string of targeted killings of its top commanders and for an attack last week in which bombs hidden in pagers and walkie-talkies killed dozens of people and wounded thousands, including many Hezbollah members.

Hezbollah fires missile at Tel Aviv after Israeli strikes on Lebanon

The Israeli military said it was the first time a projectile fired from Lebanon had reached central Israel.

Hezbollah claimed to have targeted an intelligence base near Tel Aviv last month in an aerial attack, but there was no confirmation. The Palestinian Hamas militant group in Gaza repeatedly targeted Tel Aviv in the opening months of the war.

Lt Col Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesperson, said the missile fired on Wednesday had a "heavy warhead" but declined to elaborate or confirm it was the type described by Hezbollah.

He dismissed Hezbollah's claim of targeting the Mossad headquarters, located just north of Tel Aviv, as "psychological warfare".

The Iranian-made Qader is a medium-range surface-to-surface ballistic missile with multiple types and payloads.

It can carry an explosive payload of up to 800kg (1,760 pounds), according to the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies. Iranian officials have described the liquid-fuelled missile as having a range of 2,000km (1,240 miles).

The launch ratcheted up tensions as the region appears to be teetering toward another all-out war, even as Israel continues to battle Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

A wave of Israeli strikes on Monday and Tuesday killed at least 560 people in Lebanon and forced thousands to seek refuge.

Families have fled southern Lebanon, flocking to Beirut and the coastal city of Sidon, sleeping in schools turned into shelters, as well as in cars, parks and along the beach. Some sought to leave the country, causing a traffic jam at the border with Syria.

Israel said late on Tuesday that fighter jets carried out "extensive strikes" on Hezbollah weapons and rocket launchers across southern Lebanon and in the Bekaa region to the north.

On Wednesday it responded with its own new strikes on Hezbollah. In Lebanon, at least three people were killed and nine wounded in a strike near Byblos, according to the country's health ministry. The coastal town is north of Beirut and far from Hezbollah's main strongholds.

The UN Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting on Lebanon for Wednesday at the request of France.

Nearly a year of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel had already displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border before this week's escalation.

Israel has vowed to do whatever it takes to ensure its citizens can return to their homes in the north, while Hezbollah has said it will keep up its rocket attacks until there is a ceasefire in Gaza, something which appears increasingly remote.