The News
One of Israel’s top military officials indicated Wednesday the country is preparing for a potential ground incursion into Lebanon. The remarks came as the United Nations Security Council was set to meet to discuss the situation.
“You hear the jets overhead; we have been striking all day,” Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said, according to a military statement. “This is both to prepare the ground for your possible entry and to continue degrading Hezbollah.”
A Pentagon spokesperson said that such an incursion did not appear imminent, Reuters reported.
The remarks came after weeks of escalating tensions and both sides trading fire, with waves of Israeli airstrikes killing hundreds of people in recent days, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
The United States and France are urgently working to de-escalate the situation, officials have said, although some US officials have cautioned that the conflict may get far worse. And on Tuesday, President Joe Biden used his address to the United Nations to call for an end to the conflict.
“Full-scale war is not in anyone’s interest. The situation has escalated,” Biden said.