Israeli army chief says army prepares for possible ground operation in Lebanon

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel’s army chief said on Wednesday that the military was preparing for a possible ground operation in Lebanon as Hezbollah fired dozens of projectiles into Israel, including a rocket aimed at Tel Aviv, which was the militant group’s deepest strike since yet.

Addressing troops on the northern border, Chief of Staff General Herzi Halevi said the latest Israeli airstrikes were designed to “prepare the ground for your possible entry and continue the degradation of Hezbollah.”

In an apparent reference to the missile aimed at Tel Aviv, he said: “Today, Hezbollah has extended its range of fire, and later today, they will receive a very strong response. Get ready.”

To achieve the goal of returning the displaced citizens of northern Israel to their homes, “we are preparing the maneuvering process,” he said.

In recent days, the Israeli military has said it has no immediate plans for a ground invasion. Halevi’s statement was the strongest yet from an Israeli leader suggesting that troops could enter.

In other developments, Lebanon’s health minister said continued Israeli attacks on Wednesday killed more than 50 people. This brought the death toll in the past three days to 615, with more than 2,000 people injured.

This week has been the most dangerous in Lebanon since the painful month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006. With tensions continuing to escalate, the Israeli military said it would activate reserve troops.

Israeli military officials said they had intercepted Hezbollah’s surface-to-surface missile, marking a further escalation after Israeli attacks on Lebanon killed hundreds of people.

The missile set off air raid sirens in Tel Aviv and central Israel. No casualties or damage were reported. The army said it hit the site in southern Lebanon where the missile was launched.

The launch intensified hostilities as the region appeared to be teetering toward another all-out war, even as Israel continues to fight Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Thousands of people have fled their homes in parts of Lebanon under attack.

Israel said on Wednesday its air force had struck about 280 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon by early afternoon, including launchers used to fire rockets at the northern Israeli cities of Safed and Nahariya.

Fleeing families gathered in Beirut and the coastal city of Sidon, sleeping in schools turned into shelters, as well as in cars, parks and along the beach. Some sought to leave the country, causing a traffic jam at the border with Syria.

The United Nations has said more than 90,000 people have been displaced by five days of Israeli attacks on Lebanon. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Wednesday that a total of 200,000 people had been displaced in Lebanon since Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel nearly a year ago, prompting Israeli retaliation.

Hezbollah said it fired a Qader 1 ballistic missile targeting the headquarters of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, which it blames for a recent series of targeted killings of its top commanders and an attack last week in which explosives hidden in pagers and walkie-talkies killed dozens. of people and thousands injured, including many Hezbollah members.

The Israeli military said it was the first time a projectile fired from Lebanon had reached central Israel. Hezbollah claimed to have targeted an intelligence base near Tel Aviv in an airstrike last month, but there was no confirmation. The Gaza-based Palestinian militant group Hamas repeatedly targeted Tel Aviv in the early months of the war.

The announcement of the reserve troops indicated that Israel was planning even tougher action against Hezbollah. The army said it would call up two reserve brigades for missions in the north.

“This will allow the fight against the Hezbollah terrorist organization to continue,” the military said.

Hezbollah’s latest strikes included dozens of rockets fired into northern Israel on Wednesday, the military said. Two people suffered shrapnel injuries, according to Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service.

Israel responded with its own strikes on Hezbollah. In Lebanon, at least three people were killed and nine wounded in an Israeli attack near Byblos, according to the country’s Health Ministry. The coastal city is north of Beirut and far from Hezbollah’s main strongholds.

Tensions between Israel and the Lebanese militant group have steadily escalated over the past 11 months. Hezbollah has launched missiles, rockets and drones into northern Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza and its ally Hamas, an Iranian-backed militant group.

Israel has responded with increasingly powerful airstrikes and targeted killings of Hezbollah commanders, while threatening a wider operation.

The UN Security Council has scheduled an emergency meeting on Lebanon for Wednesday at the request of France.

Nearly a year of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel had already displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border before the recent escalation. Israel has vowed to do whatever is necessary to ensure its citizens can return to their homes in the north, while Hezbollah has said it will continue its rocket attacks until a cease-fire in Gaza, something that appears to more and more distant.

Last week’s rocket fire disrupted the lives of more than 1 million people in northern Israel, with schools closed and restrictions on public gatherings. Many restaurants and other businesses are closed in the coastal city of Haifa and there are fewer people on the streets. Some who fled south from communities near the border are again under rocket fire.

Israel has moved thousands of troops who served in Gaza to the northern border. Hezbollah is said to have about 150,000 missiles and rockets, including some capable of hitting anywhere in Israel, and that the group has fired about 9,000 rockets and drones since last October.

Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman, said the missile fired Wednesday had a “heavy warhead,” but declined to elaborate or confirm it was the type described by Hezbollah. He dismissed Hezbollah’s claim of targeting the Mossad headquarters, located just north of Tel Aviv, as “psychological warfare.”

The Iranian-made Qader is a medium-range surface-to-surface ballistic missile with multiple types and payloads. It can carry an explosive charge of up to 800 kilograms (1,760 pounds), according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Iranian officials described the liquid-fueled missile as having a range of 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles).

The cross-border fires began on Sunday after pager and walkie-talkie attacks that killed 39 people and injured nearly 3,000, many of them civilians. Lebanon blamed Israel, but Israel did not confirm or deny responsibility.

The next day, Israel said its warplanes struck 1,600 Hezbollah targets, destroying cruise missiles, long- and short-range missiles and attack drones, including weapons hidden in private homes. The strikes racked up the highest single-day death toll in Lebanon since Israel and Hezbollah fought a painful month-long war in 2006.

An Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Tuesday killed Ibrahim Kobeisi, whom Israel described as a top commander of Hezbollah’s rocket and missile unit. Military officials said Kobeisi was responsible for the launches to Israel and planned an attack in 2000 in which three Israeli soldiers were kidnapped and killed. Hezbollah later confirmed his death.

It was the latest in a string of assassinations and other setbacks for Hezbollah, which is Lebanon’s most powerful political and military player and is widely considered the leading paramilitary force in the Arab world.

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Chehayeb reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.