Israel has told the United States it is conducting a limited ground operation focused on Hezbollah infrastructure in Lebanon near the border with Israel, the State Department said on Monday.
“They have told us that they are currently conducting limited operations targeting Hezbollah infrastructure near the border,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
Asked to confirm that they were limited ground operations, he said: “That is our understanding.”
There were signs on Monday that Israel was on the verge of sending ground troops to Lebanon, two weeks after an attack on the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia that resulted in the killing of its leader Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that the position of Israeli troops suggests a ground incursion may be imminent.
After two weeks of intense airstrikes and a series of killings of Hezbollah commanders, Israel has suggested more strongly that a land invasion is looming.
Israeli attacks on terrorist targets in Lebanon are part of a conflict extending from the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the occupied West Bank to Iranian-backed groups in Yemen and Iraq. The rise in tensions has raised fears that the United States and Iran will also be drawn into the conflict.
Miller said the United States continues to support a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, but he said military pressure can sometimes enable diplomacy. He warned that military pressure could also lead to miscalculations and unintended consequences.
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