Israel “fully prepared for maneuvers” against Hezbollah in Lebanon as deaths from airstrikes top 600

Israel’s military hinted for the first time Wednesday of possible ground operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon, with a top commander stressing the need to be ready for “maneuvers and action” against the Iran-backed group. This comes after more than a week of airstrikes that Lebanese officials say have killed more than 600 people and displaced thousands. 

The U.S. has urged Israel to focus on diplomacy rather than escalating its fight with Hezbollah, with concern growing that a full-scale war between the longtime foes could mushroom into a wider conflict that puts American forces in the Middle East at greater risk and destabilizes the volatile region.

“We have entered a new phase of the campaign,” Major General Ori Gordin, the Israel Defense Forces commander for the north of the country, said Tuesday, according to a statement released Wednesday by the IDF. Crossfire between the IDF and Hezbollah across Israel’s northern border with Lebanon has ramped up since the U.S.-designated terrorist group’s Hamas allies launched their Oct. 7 massacre, sparking the ongoing war in Hamas-ruled Gaza.  

“The operation began with a significant blow to Hezbollah’s capabilities, focusing on their firepower capabilities, and a very significant hit on the organization’s commanders and operatives. Facing this, we need to change the security situation, and we must be fully prepared for maneuvers and action,” Gordin said, speaking with other senior officers as he visited the border region to observe exercises.

It was not immediately clear if Gordin was talking about a ground incursion, which could see Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah in direct combat inside Lebanon for the first time in years. 

Hours after his remarks were released, the IDF said two additional brigades were being sent to the northern front, further bolstering the ground force available in the border area with Lebanon to “enable the continuation of the fighting effort against Hezbollah, the defense of the citizens of the State of Israel and the creation of conditions for the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes.”

“Escalate to deescalate”  

Briefing reporters on Tuesday, a senior U.S. State Department official stressed the Biden administration’s focus on finding a diplomatic resolution to the increasing pace, intensity and scale of attacks between Hezbollah and Israel, to break “this cycle of strike and counterstrike.”

The official indicated that the administration was, based on the history of such tactics, not convinced that Israel’s “escalate to deescalate” approach could bring about the desired results. For Israel, the stated goal has long been enabling tens of thousands of border community residents to come back home months after they were displaced by Hezbollah’s relentless rocket fire.

Those rocket, drone and missile attacks — dozens of which the group has launched this week, including what the IDF says was a first attempt to hit a target in Tel Aviv with a ballistic missile on Tuesday — have been largely ineffective. The majority of the group’s weapons are shot down by Israel’s advanced missile defense systems, and many others land in open space. Several people have been wounded as the rockets and drones crash down, but the damage inflicted by Israel on the other side of its northern border has been significant by comparison.

The heart of Beirut’s densely populated southern suburbs — a Hezbollah stronghold — was targeted in yet another airstrike Tuesday, and the group later confirmed Israel’s claim to have killed Ibrahim Qubaisi, who led its rocket and missile force, in the strike. 

Lebanese health officials said at least six people were killed in that blast, and since the airstrikes ramped up last week, Lebanon’s health ministry has reported more than 610 people being killed in total. It’s not clear how many of the dead were Hezbollah fighters, but the group acknowledged the deaths of three more from its ranks on Wednesday alone, on the heels of Qubaisi’s assassination.

Warnings of an “all-out war”

Israel launched its successive waves of airstrikes after inflicting an initial blow to Hezbollah last week with explosives-laden pagers and walkie talkies that had been distributed to thousands of the group’s members across Lebanon. Dozens were killed and thousands wounded by the exploding devices, including many bystanders, according to Lebanese officials.

Tens of thousands of civilians have fled Israel’s bombardment of southern Lebanon, plying packed highways to seek refuge in Beirut and beyond, many with no clear idea of where they’re going.

Israel says it’s only targeting Hezbollah military infrastructure and missile launch sites in the country.

Hezbollah has vowed to keep firing weapons at Israel until its forces pull out of Gaza, where their war with Hamas continues in its 11th month amid what the IDF has clearly iterated as a shift in focus to the north. Israel has demanded that Hezbollah halt its rocket and drone attacks so the roughly 60,000 displaced northern Israel residents can return to their homes.

Some of them won’t have much home to return to, however. CBS News visited the town of Kiryat Bialik on Tuesday, at which Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets and drones in recent days. Most have been intercepted by the country’s Iron Dome defenses, but not all of them, and at least one home was left in ruins.  

Tel Aviv were woken again Tuesday to the blaring of sirens, as the Israeli military intercepted a surface-to-surface missile — the first time Hezbollah has ever fired such a weapon at Israel’s biggest city. It was a major escalation for the Iranian-backed group, which is significantly larger and better armed than its Hamas allies, but still overwhelmingly outgunned by Israel, and tending its wounds after the attacks of the last week inside Lebanon.

Despite the calls from the U.S. to deescalate, and increasingly assertive rhetoric from other countries in the Middle East condemning Israel’s actions, the attacks on both sides have continued ratcheting up.

The foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan and Iraq said in a joint statement Tuesday, after meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, that Israel was pushing the region “towards all-out war,” condemning what they called “the Israeli aggression on Lebanon.”

The concern is that Hezbollah’s primary benefactor Iran and Israel’s closest ally the U.S. could both be drawn directly into the conflict, triggering a regional war that many fear could spiral wildly out of control and become even deadlier and more destructive than the one still raging in Gaza.

contributed to this report.