Brief incursions in recent days were to prepare the ground for a possible wider ground invasion, the officials said.
Israeli commando units have made brief incursions across the border into Lebanon in recent days to prepare the ground for a possible wider invasion in the near future, according to six Israeli officers and officials and a senior Western official.
The officials said the raids had focused on gathering intelligence about Hezbollah positions close to the border, as well as identifying Hezbollah tunnels and military infrastructure in order to attack them from the air or the ground. The officials all spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military matter.
The officials said that Israel had not made a final decision about whether or when to launch a major ground operation in Lebanon, which would be Israel’s first there since 2006.
The raids follow months of similar covert missions in which Israeli special forces briefly crossed the border for reconnaissance missions but did not attempt to prepare the ground for an invasion, according to five of the officials.
In recent days, the incursions have increased in intensity and ambition, three of the officials said, as commanders prepared for a wider maneuver.
It is unclear how much land Israel would hope to occupy in any ground operation, or if it intends to advance more than a few hundred yards inside southern Lebanon.
The Israeli government’s declared goal is to make the border area safe enough for tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by Hezbollah rocket fire over the last year to return to their homes.
Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians have also been displaced by Israeli fire on the other side of the border.
Patrick Kingsley is The Times’s Jerusalem bureau chief, leading coverage of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. More about Patrick Kingsley
Ronen Bergman is a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, based in Tel Aviv. His latest book is “Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations,” published by Random House. More about Ronen Bergman
