Israel warned Iran on Monday that nowhere in the Middle East was beyond its reach and hinted at a land invasion of Lebanon after assassinating the leader of the Tehran-backed Hezbollah group, one of its biggest adversaries, in a Beirut suburb last week.
“There is nowhere we will not go to protect our people and protect our country,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a three-minute video clip in English that he addressed to the Iranian people.
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Friday’s assassination of Nasrallah – the most powerful leader in Tehran’s “Axis of Resistance” against Israeli and U.S.
interests in the Middle East – was one of the heaviest blows in decades to both Hezbollah and Iran.
After two weeks of intensive airstrikes and a string of assassinations of Hezbollah commanders, Israel, which has been training its troops for a ground invasion, indicated that a land invasion was an option in Lebanon.
Speaking to troops deployed along Israel’s northern border, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel would do whatever it takes to ensure the return of citizens who have fled Hezbollah rockets during nearly a year of border warfare.
“We will use all the means that may be required as your forces, other forces, from the air, from the sea, and on land.
Good luck,” said Gallant, who was briefed by commanders.
“The elimination of Nasrallah is an important step, but it is not the final one. In order to ensure the return of Israel’s northern communities, we will employ all of our capabilities, and this includes you.”
The Washington Post cited an unidentified U.S. official as saying Israel had already told the U.S. it was planning a ground operation that may start imminently.
The operation would be smaller than Israel’s 2006 war against Hezbollah and focus on security for border communities, the official said.
Asked about the reports, U.S. President Joe Biden, who has so far had little success urging Israel to rein in its campaigns, called for a ceasefire, telling reporters: “I’m comfortable with them stopping.”
The Pentagon referred reporters to Israel for questions on any land offensive.
HEZBOLLAH SAYS IT IS READY FOR INVASION
In his first public speech since Israeli airstrikes killed Nasrallah last week, Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Qassem said his fighters were primed to confront a ground invasion and thwart its aims.
“The resistance forces are ready for a ground engagement,” he said in an address from an undisclosed location.
As he spoke, Israeli airstrikes in Beirut and elsewhere in Lebanon continued, extending a two-week-old campaign that has eliminated several Hezbollah commanders but also killed about 1,000 civilians and forced one million to flee their homes, according to the Lebanese government.
The death toll from an Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese town of Ain Deleb rose to 45, Lebanon’s health ministry said on Monday. Rescuers stood on a flattened building.
“We are rescuing these people, pulling out the living, the torn apart, and the martyrs,” said one, Mazin al-Khatib.
Nasrallah’s killing, along with the assassinations and systematic attacks on the group’s communications devices, constitute the biggest blow to the Shi’ite movement since Iran created it in 1982 to fight Israel.
Nasrallah built Hezbollah up into Lebanon’s most powerful military and political force, with a wide reach across the Middle East.
Now it must replace a charismatic, towering leader who was a hero to millions of supporters because he stood up to Israel – even though the West branded him a terrorist mastermind.
Qassem said it would “choose a secretary-general for the party at the earliest opportunity … and fill the leadership and positions on a permanent basis”.
He said Hezbollah had continued to fire rockets as deep as 150 km (93 miles) into Israeli territory.
“What we are doing is the bare minimum … We know that the battle may be long,” he said. “We will win as we won in the liberation of 2006,” he added, referring to the last big conflict between the two foes.
Israel, which has also assassinated leaders of the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza war, says it will do whatever it takes to return its citizens to evacuated communities on its northern border safely.
Hours before Qassem spoke, Hamas said an Israeli airstrike had killed its leader in Lebanon, Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin, along with his wife, son and daughter in the city of Tyre on Monday.
Another faction, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said three of its leaders had died in a strike in Beirut’s Kola district, the first strike so close to the city centre.
The Israeli attacks on militant targets in Lebanon are part of a conflict also stretching from the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the occupied West Bank to Iranian-backed groups in Yemen and Iraq. The escalation has raised fears that the United States and Iran will be sucked into the conflict.
The latest actions indicated Israel had no plans to slow down its advanced military machine even after eliminating Nasrallah.
Netanyahu accused the Iranian government of plunging the Middle East “deeper into war” at the expense of its own people, whom it was bringing “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 killings of Nasrallah and an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps deputy commander, Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan, who died in the same strikes.
Israel’s closest ally, the United States, has not wavered in its support despite concerns over heavy civilian casualties.
And while Arab states have condemned Israel’s actions, none have taken concrete steps to pressure it to rein in its warplanes, angering Beirut residents like Abou Imad.
“You are watching as they (Israel) take over all the Arab countries and take us all,” he said. “This indifference is shameful, for the Lebanese and Palestinian people.”
Next phase of war against Lebanon will begin soon: Israeli defence minister
The next phase of the war along the southern border of Lebanon is set to begin shortly, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Monday, as at least two U.S. newspapers reported that special forces may have already made short incursions.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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