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Sept. 30, 2024Updated 6:53 p.m. ET
Israeli airstrikes near Beirut continued late on Monday night amid mounting signs that Israel was preparing for a ground invasion into southern Lebanon.
Israeli commando units have made brief incursions into Lebanon in recent days to prepare for a possible wider ground invasion, according to seven Israeli officers and officials and a senior Western official. But American officials said on Monday that they believed that the invasion would be a limited one.
The Israeli and Western officials said the raids had been focused on gathering intelligence about Hezbollah’s positions close to the border, as well as identifying the Iranian-backed group’s tunnels and military infrastructure, in order to attack them from the air or the ground. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military matter. The Israeli military declined to comment.
Israel’s 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 again in 2006, during a monthlong war with Hezbollah.
At the same time, Israeli airstrikes pounded southern Lebanon late Monday. Loud explosions were heard and thick, black smoke rose over Beirut after midnight.
The blasts came after an announcement from the Israeli military calling on Lebanese civilians to evacuate the areas of three building complexes in the Dahiya, a densely populated area just south of Beirut that is a Hezbollah stronghold. The area has seen constant bombardment since Friday when Israel attacked Hezbollah headquarters that it said were embedded under residential buildings there with heavy airstrikes, killing Hezbollah’s chief, Hassan Nasrallah.
