The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will begin a “limited” ground war in southern Lebanon to remove Hezbollah bases near the border with Israel, according to multiple reports.
As Breitbart News reported Saturday, the IDF has already reportedly sent commando units into Lebanon on small missions to destroy Hezbollah positions.
And as Breitbart News reported in April, the IDF had already been carrying out similar missions for several months.
Now, however, with the senior leadership of Hezbollah dead, and the terror group’s communications destroyed, the IDF is reportedly planning a larger operation, and Israel’s security cabinet met Monday to consider options.
The Times of Israel reported Monday that the U.S. State Department confirmed that Israel had informed it of its battle plans:
Israel has informed the US about a series of limited ground operations into Lebanon that it is planning, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller says.
“We have been engaged in conversations with them about those operations, but the timing, purpose, tempo of those — I’ll let them speak to,” Miller says, during a press briefing.
“They have informed us about a number of operations. They have at this time, told us that those are limited operations focused on Hezbollah infrastructure near the border, but we’re in continuous conversations about it,” he adds.
Separately, the IDF announced that “the areas of Metula, Misgav Am, and Kfar Giladi” — a region known as the “panhandle,” which is bounded by Lebanon on both the north and the west — were now “closed military zones.”
Israel’s stated goal is to return its northern residents safely to their homes, after being evacuated in October due to Hezbollah fire. Israel hopes to achieve that by enforcing United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 (2006), which calls for Hezbollah to withdraw north of the Litani River, and for it to be disarmed south of the Litani.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
