BY MELANIE SWAN

 

LONDON, 25 Sept. - (ANA) - Israel is preparing to put boots on the ground with an invasion of Lebanon, its army chief has said.

 

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) jets have carried out heavy bombardments of Hezbollah targets to pave the way for “your boots” to “enter enemy territory”, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi told troops on Wednesday.

 

 

It came as the Israeli army called up two brigades of reservists, around 4,000 soldiers, for operations on the northern border.

 

 

Gen Halevi, speaking during a visit to the border, said: “You hear the jets overhead; we have been striking all day. This is both to prepare the ground for your possible entry and to continue degrading Hezbollah.”

 

 

“The sense is that your military boots, your manoeuvre boots, will enter enemy territory,” he said.

 

 

“Your entry there with force... will show (Hezbollah) what it is like to meet a professional combat force,“ he said.

 

 

The purpose of the invasion would be to allow Israeli citizens to return to their homes in the north, Gen Halevi added.

 

 

Missiles fired across the border by Iran-backed Hezbollah have led to the evacuation of around 60,000 citizens.

 

 

Lt Gen Halevi’s remarks and the call-up of reservists formed the clearest signal yet that Israel intends to escalate Operation Northern Arrow, which has killed more than 600 people, according to Lebanon’s health authorities.

 

 

Joe Biden, the US president, said all-out war was possible but not “inevitable”.

 

 

“We’re still in play to have a settlement that can fundamentally change the whole region,” he told ABC News.

 

 

Sir Keir Starmer urged all British citizens to leave Lebanon immediately, saying the situation was deteriorating “hour on hour”.

 

 

He did not rule out deploying troops on the ground to evacuate stranded citizens if necessary after sending 700 extra soldiers to Cyprus.

 

 

Border Force officers are being deployed to help up to 6,000 trapped Britons flee Lebanon, it emerged on Wednesday.

 

 

Some UK officers have been sent to Lebanon to work with consular and military staff in helping Britons seeking to leave the country after appeals to do so by Sir Keir.

 

 

A bigger contingent of Border Force officers are on 24-hour notice to fly to the region in the event that Britain has to evacuate stranded workers and families.

 

 

Chloe Lewin, a 24-year-old freelance journalist from London who is based in Beirut, told BBC News that it was not possible to book commercial flights out of the country. “Keir Starmer’s telling everyone to get out but we can’t,” she said.

 

 

“You can’t get out this week because they’re [flights] all full and every time you get to the last page of the booking, it just crashes and it says you can’t book a flight. And then people I know who have had flights, they’re all getting cancelled. My friends were meant to leave this morning on Egyptair – that got cancelled, so they can’t get out.”

 

 

According to multiple reports, the US is engaging in a last-ditch diplomatic effort to secure a ceasefire in both Lebanon and Gaza.

 

 

Details are being hammered out at the UN General Assembly in New York. The deal, which would result in the release of all Israeli hostages in Gaza, is the first attempt to link the two conflicts.

 

 

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, has given the “green light” to discuss the initiative, an Israeli official told The Telegraph.

 

 

The source said that while the US was not speaking to Hezbollah directly, it was mediating emergency talks with the terror group.

 

 

Another Israeli official said that Amos Hochstein, its US envoy, was involved in crisis talks, shuttling between the two sides in search of a deal.

 

 

 

 

“We are striking Hezbollah with blows it never imagined,” Mr Netanyahu said on Wednesday evening. “We are doing this with full force, we are doing this with guile. One thing I promise you: we will not rest until they [displaced families] return home.”

 

 

A ground invasion to force Hezbollah away from Israel’s border would be a huge, complex operation.

 

 

The Lebanese terror group has a vast network of tunnels and a more sophisticated arsenal of anti-tank missiles than Hamas.

 

 

It would also likely fire off the full arsenal of its long-range missiles, which have been largely held in reserve since war broke out last year.

 

 

On Wednesday, Israel’s Iron Dome intercepted a Hezbollah missile aimed at Mossad’s headquarters near Tel Aviv, in the first attack attempting to reach so far into Israel.

 

 

“Hezbollah today expanded its [range] of fire. Later today, it will receive a very strong response,” Lt Gen Halevi vowed.

 

 

Hezbollah has fired around 9,000 missiles and drones at Israel since Oct 8.

 

 

In recent days, Israel has significantly stepped up its military campaign in Lebanon, killing several Hezbollah commanders in strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs.

 

 

It carried out attacks on Monday that killed more than 500 people, including 50 children, Lebanese health authorities said, in the deadliest day for the country since fighting started.

 

 

‘Starmer saying get out but we can’t’

Tensions intensified last week when scores of Hezbollah operatives’ pagers and walkie-talkies were blown up in remote detonations.

 

 

The attacks, which have not been claimed by Israel, took 1,500 fighters out of action, according to Reuters.   - (ANA) -

 

 

AB/ANA/25 September 2024 - - -