On video: The IDF attacked military buildings of the terrorist organization Hezbollah in Lebanon 26.02.24/doc
American government and intelligence officials fear that Israel is planning a ground invasion of Lebanon, which could be launched in late spring or early summer if diplomatic efforts fail to repel Hezbollah from the northern border with Israel - this is what senior government officials and intelligence sources told CNN.
Although a final Israeli decision has not yet been made, the fear within the Biden administration is acute enough to the point that the ground entry scenario made its way into intelligence briefings for senior government officials, according to a person who received a briefing and was told that an operation could take place in early summer.
"We are operating on the assumption that there will be an Israeli military operation in the coming months," said a senior member of the Biden administration.
"Not necessarily in the coming weeks, but maybe later in the spring. Israeli military action is a distinct possibility."
IDF forces practicing on the northern border/IDF spokesperson
At the same time as the mediation efforts led by the United States to end the war in Gaza, the Biden administration is also leading parallel talks with senior Israeli and Lebanese officials.
The talks deal with the establishment of a buffer zone in southern Lebanon, from which Hezbollah forces are supposed to withdraw and thus, according to American estimates, Israel's ground entry will be prevented.
But Hezbollah, which conducts exchanges of fire with IDF forces on the border and launches rockets at northern settlements, emphasizes that it will not discuss ending hostilities with Israel until the end of the war in Gaza. And despite the talks between the United States, Israel, Qatar and Egypt, there has yet to be any real progress in the matter and allowing for a truce in the Gaza Strip and the release
of the hostages held by Hamas. "I think what Israel is doing is that it is raising this threat in the hope that there will be an agreement," said a senior official, who indicated to CNN that he had heard different opinions in the Israeli government regarding the need to enter Lebanon. "Some Israeli officials claim that More effort to create a threat that they can exploit to their advantage.
Others talk about it more as a military necessity that is going to happen," the official said.
More on the same topic:
Hezbollah
Lebanon
Gaza war