The raids were said to be focused on gathering intelligence about Hezbollah positions close to the Israeli-Lebanese border, but American officials said they believed that any incursion would be a limited one.
Israeli commando units have made brief incursions into Lebanon in recent days to prepare for a possible wider ground invasion, according to Israeli officers and officials as well as a senior Western official. But American officials said on Monday that they believed the invasion would be a limited one.
The raids were focused on gathering intelligence about Hezbollah positions close to the Israeli-Lebanese border, as well as identifying Hezbollah tunnels and military infrastructure, in order to attack them from the air or the ground, the seven Israeli and Western officials said. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military matter. The Israeli military declined to comment.
Israel’s security cabinet met on Monday evening to discuss whether and when to launch a major ground operation in southern Lebanon, which would be Israel’s first there in nearly two decades. Israel occupied southern Lebanon from 1982 to 2000, and briefly invaded in 2006 during a monthlong war with Hezbollah. It also invaded southern Lebanon in 1978.
Before midnight, loud explosions could be heard and flashes of light could be seen in Dahiya, the densely populated area just south of Beirut where the Israeli military had issued fresh evacuation warnings. The Israeli military had called on Lebanese in and around three building complexes in the Dahiya to evacuate the areas, saying they near Hezbollah targets.
The Israeli military also said on Monday night that three areas in northern Israel had been declared “a closed military zone.”
Israeli officials previously told the Biden administration that the commando units were conducting “limited operations focused on Hezbollah infrastructure near the border” between Israel and Lebanon, Matthew Miller, a U.S. State Department spokesman, told reporters on Monday.
