Hundreds of Israeli tanks are gathering along the Lebanese border, raising concerns about a possible ground invasion of the country. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has also announced that it has mobilized for operations on the northern border.
The tanks and troops were observed after Hezbollah confirmed that its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an airstrike on Friday in Beirut, according to British broadcaster SkyNews.
On Monday, Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Kassem pledged in a televised announcement that the militant group would continue fighting and that they were prepared for further Israeli escalations, including a possible ground invasion.
“Israel was unable to impact our (military) capabilities,” Kassem said. “There are deputy commanders and there are replacements in case a commander is wounded in any post.”
Over 1,000 people have been killed as a result of Israeli strikes in the past two weeks, a quarter of them women and children, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. The death toll is expected to rise as rescue workers search through the rubble of dozens of buildings that were destroyed in the attacks.
As many as 1 million people in Lebanon may have been displaced due to the ongoing conflict, Prime Minister Najib Mikati said. He added that the scale of the displacement is the largest in Lebanese history.
The attacks have been concentrated in Beirut’s southern suburbs, but an airstrike hit an apartment building within the city limits on Monday, marking the first time a building within the city has been struck in nearly a year of conflict.
Hezbollah has responded to Israel’s escalating attacks by increasing its rocket fire into Israeli territory, from dozens to several hundred daily, the IDF said. The attacks have injured several people, but most of the rockets and drones were intercepted by air defenses or fell in open fields.
The Biden Administration has been monitoring the escalating situation since the twin pager and walkie-talkie attacks on Sept. 17 and 18 that marked the beginning of the heightened conflict.
Israel’s stated goal is to end Hezbollah rocket fire into northern Israel to allow the tens of thousands of displaced residents to return home safely. “An all-out war with Hezbollah, certainly with Iran, is not the way to do that. If you want to get those folks back home safely and sustainably, we believe that a diplomatic path is the right course,” John Kirby, the White House national security spokesman, said.
Kirby also said Nasrallah’s assassination was “good for the region, good for the world.”
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in a speech to Israeli troops on the northern border on Monday that Israel’s assault on Hezbollah was not yet over.
“The elimination of Nasrallah is a very important step, but it is not everything. We will use all the capabilities we have,” Gallant said. “If someone on the other side does not understand what these capabilities mean, it is all capabilities and you are part of this effort.”
Hezbollah, which boasts tens of thousands of fighters and long-range missiles capable of hitting deep into Israeli territory, is the world’s most powerful non-state actor. But its command structure has been “wiped out,” Kirby said.
“We’re watching to see what they do to try to fill this leadership vacuum,” he added.