Israel ‘fully prepared for maneuvers’ against Hezbollah in Lebanon as airstrikes kill over 600

The Israeli military hinted for the first time on Wednesday at possible ground operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon, with a top commander stressing the need to be prepared for “maneuvers and actions” against the Iran-backed group. This comes after more than a week of airstrikes which Lebanese officials say have killed more than 600 people and displaced thousands.

The United States has urged Israel to focus on diplomacy rather than escalating its fighting with Hezbollah, amid growing concerns that a full-scale war between the longtime foes could escalate into a broader conflict that would put American forces in the Middle East at greater risk and destabilize the volatile region.

“We have entered a new phase of the campaign,” Gen. Ori Gordin, commander of the Israel Defense Forces in the north, said Tuesday, according to a statement released by the IDF Wednesday. Crossfire between the IDF and Hezbollah across Israel’s northern border with Lebanon has intensified since the allies of the US-designated Hamas terror group launched their Oct. 7 massacre, sparking the ongoing war. War in Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

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

It was not immediately clear whether Gordin was talking about a ground incursion, which could see Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah clash directly in Lebanon for the first time in years.

A few hours after the publication of his remarks, the The IDF said: Two additional brigades were sent to the northern front, further strengthening the ground force available in the border area with Lebanon to “enable the continuation of combat efforts against Hezbollah, the defense of the citizens of the State of Israel and the creation of conditions for the safe return of northerners to their homes.”

“Climb to defuse”

At a press conference on Tuesday, a senior US State Department official stressed the importance the Biden administration places on finding a diplomatic solution to the increasing pace, intensity and scale of attacks between Hezbollah and Israel, in order to break “this cycle of strikes and counterattacks.”

The official said the administration, given the history of such tactics, was not convinced that Israel’s strategy of “escalating and deescalating” could produce the desired results. For Israel, the stated goal has long been to allow tens of thousands of residents of border communities to return home, months after they were displaced by relentless rocket fire from Hezbollah.

Those rocket, drone and missile attacks — dozens of which the group has launched this week, including what the Israeli military said was a first attempt to hit a target in Tel Aviv with a ballistic missile on Tuesday — have been largely ineffective. Most of the group’s weapons are shot down by Israel’s advanced missile defense systems, and many more land in open space. Several people have been injured when the rockets and drones crash, but the damage Israel has inflicted across its northern border is considerable by comparison.

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

Lebanese health officials said at least six people were killed in the blast, and since airstrikes intensified last week, Lebanon’s health ministry has put the total death toll at more than 610. It’s unclear how many Hezbollah fighters were killed, but the group acknowledged the deaths of three more members of its ranks on Wednesday alone, following Qubaisi’s assassination.

Warnings of ‘total war’

Israel launched successive waves of airstrikes after dealing a first blow to Hezbollah last week with pagers and walkie-talkies loaded with explosives Dozens of people were killed and thousands injured by the explosive devices, including many bystanders, according to Lebanese authorities.

Tens of thousands of civilians have fled Israeli bombardment of southern Lebanon, taking crowded highways to seek refuge in Beirut and beyond, many with little clarity on where they are going.

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

Hezbollah has vowed to continue firing on Israel until its forces withdraw from Gaza, where its war against Hamas has been ongoing for 11 months, as the Israeli military has made clear it is shifting its focus north. Israel has demanded that Hezbollah stop its rocket and drone attacks so that the estimated 60,000 displaced residents of northern Israel can return home.

Some of them, however, will have little to do in the places they might return to. CBS News visited the city of Kiryat Bialik on Tuesday, where 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, and at least one home was left in ruins.

Tel Aviv was awakened Tuesday by the wailing of sirens as the Israeli military intercepted a surface-to-surface missile — the first time Hezbollah has fired such a weapon at Israel’s largest city. It was a major escalation for the Iran-backed group, which is significantly larger and better armed than its Hamas allies but still vastly outgunned by Israel and licking its wounds after last week’s attacks in Lebanon.

Despite calls from the United States for de-escalation and increasingly assertive rhetoric from other Middle Eastern countries condemning Israel’s actions, attacks from both sides have continued to escalate.

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

The fear is that Iran, Hezbollah’s main benefactor, and the United States, Israel’s closest ally, will both be drawn directly into the conflict, triggering a regional war that many fear could spiral out of control and become even more deadly and destructive than the one still raging in Gaza.

Khaled Wassef

contributed to this report.