MONITORING (SW) – As Israel and Hezbollah traded fire after the United States and its allies failed to secure a halt, an Israeli official said on Friday that any ground operation against Hezbollah would be swift.
While Israeli air strikes have left more than 700 people dead in Lebanon this week, a fresh attack killed five Syrian soldiers near the border with Lebanon on Friday, the official news agency SANA reported.
The comments about swift ground offensive come after top Israeli ministers rejected a truce plan proposed by Israel’s key backer the United States and its allies, seeking to prevent all-out war, reported agencies.
The Israeli official, briefing journalists on condition of anonymity, said forces were “preparing… every day” for a potential ground invasion.
“We will try to do it as short as we can,” said the official, adding that the goal of is to downgrade Hezbollah’s capacity to fire on Israel, eliminate the group’s leadership and “clean” the border areas from fighters.
Since Monday, warplanes have bombarded what Israel called Hezbollah’s strongholds in Lebanon, sparking an exodus of about 118,000 people, according to UN figures. The UN decried the escalation in Israeli attacks in Lebanon as “catastrophic”, warning the country was facing its deadliest period in years.
“The recent escalations in Lebanon are nothing short of catastrophic,” said Imran Riza, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon. “We are witnessing the deadliest period in Lebanon in a generation, and many express their fear that this is just the beginning,” he warned.
Lebanon’s health ministry said hundreds of people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Israeli strikes this week.
