US officials: Israel preparing for a ‘limited’ ground war in Lebanon

The war with Lebanon is expected to be smaller and shorter in duration than the one in 2006.

By World Israel News Staff

A senior US official told Fox News on Monday that Israel is preparing to launch a “limited” ground war in Lebanon.

The war with Lebanon is expected to be smaller and shorter in duration than the one in 2006.

Despite US President Joe Biden’s insistence on Sunday that the US would not send more troops into Lebanon, the Pentagon said it would deploy a few thousand soldiers to supplement the US forces already in the region.

The purpose of the deployment is to protect US troops already there and, if necessary, to defend Israel.

Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters that the US will also increase the number of fighter jets in the area, including squadrons of F-15 Strike Eagles, F-16, A-10, and F-22 fighter jets.

On Monday, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant spoke to IDF soldiers about deployment to Lebanon and said, “To ensure the return of Israel’s northern communities, we will employ all of our capabilities, and this includes you … We trust you to accomplish every mission at hand,” Gallant added.

IDF forces are already secretly in Lebanon, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Elite units have been making short intelligence raids for weeks and even months, the paper said, in anticipation of acting on the necessity of permanently removing the Hezbollah terrorist organization from the border via a ground invasion.

Their probes have included terror tunnels built by Hezbollah right up to Israel’s northern border, dug to enable its specialized Radwan force to invade the Galilee much as Hamas did on October 7, which sparked the ongoing war in Gaza.

The fear of such a future invasion has led some 60,000 residents of the north to say that they will refuse to return home until the threat is nullified.