Israeli tanks gather at border as US official warns ground offensive may be imminent

Israel’s military issued an urgent warning late on Monday for residents in Beirut’s southern suburbs to evacuate due to planned strikes on Hezbollah targets.

Hezbollah has not asked for any help from Iran as “they are at our side”, the Lebanese group’s lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah told local broadcaster Al Jadeed on Monday.

The US State Department has reiterated calls for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in order for a “diplomatic resolution” to be reached.

John Kirby, spokesman for the US State Department, also said on Monday that Israel “has a right to defend itself”.

He said: “I think sometimes people either misinterpret or have their own version of what a ceasefire is. A ceasefire is not one side in a conflict unilaterally putting down its arms and stopping the conflict. It is an agreement for both sides to stop the conflict.

“And in this case, what we have proposed is a 21-day ceasefire where both sides would stop attacking the other and we would reach a diplomatic resolution. We are going to continue to engage with our Israeli counterparts, with Lebanese counterparts, with other countries around the world to reach that objective.”

He added: “If you look at what the acting leader of Hezbollah said just today, it’s that their attacks on Israel will continue. So Israel has a right to defend itself against those attacks, so that includes in targeting terrorist infrastructure inside Lebanon.”

These pictures show the meeting of tanks and armoured vehicles at Upper Galilee, on the Lebanese border, this evening. It comes amid fears from Western officials that an invsaion is imminent.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said it is vital to avoid any further military interventions in Lebanon.

“Any further military intervention would dramatically aggravate the situation and it has to be avoided,” Borrell told reporters on Monday, speaking from Mexico after an emergency video conference of EU foreign ministers.

Israel warned Iran on Monday that nowhere in the Middle East was beyond its reach and hinted at a land invasion of Lebanon after assassinating the leader of the Tehran-backed Hezbollah group, one of its biggest adversaries, in a Beirut suburb last week.

The Israeli military declared the areas around the communities of Metula, Misgav Am, and Kfar Giladi in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon as a closed military zone and said entry to the areas was prohibited.

It said the decision, announced as speculation has grown of an imminent ground incursion into southern Lebanon, was taken following a situational assessment.

Israel has told the United States it is conducting limited ground operations focused on Hezbollah infrastructure in Lebanon near the border with Israel, the State Department said on Monday.

“This is what they have informed us that they are currently conducting, which are limited operations targeting Hezbollah infrastructure near the border,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters.

Asked to confirm they were limited ground operations, he said: “That is our understanding.”

Indications grew on Monday that Israel was on the verge of sending ground troops into Lebanon, two weeks into an assault on the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia that culminated in the assassination of its leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

A US official who spoke on condition of anonymity told Reuters the positioning of Israeli troops suggested a ground incursion could be imminent.

After two weeks of intensive airstrikes and a string of assassinations of Hezbollah commanders, Israel has suggested ever more strongly that a land invasion is looming.

The Israeli attacks on militant targets in Lebanon are part of a conflict stretching from the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the occupied West Bank to Iranian-backed groups in Yemen and Iraq. The escalation has raised fears that the United States and Iran will be sucked into the conflict.

Miller said that the United States continues to support a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah but added that military pressure can at times enable diplomacy. He cautioned that military pressure can also lead to miscalculation and unintended consequences.

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy has repeated calls for an immediate ceasefire amid reports of a potential escalation in the Israel-Lebanon conflict.

Speaking to broadcasters on Monday evening, Mr Lammy said that he had spoken to US secretary of state Antony Blinken and said they both agreed that “the best way forward is an immediate ceasefire and to get back to a political solution”.

Asked about advice he may have for Britons who are in Lebanon, he said: “We will do all that we can to assist people to get out and we have secured places on commercial flights that are flying tomorrow so that UK nationals can get out.

“I urge them to leave because the situation on the ground is fast moving.”

He added: “And of course, whilst we will do everything we can to protect British nationals – and those plans are in place to do so – we cannot anticipate the circumstances and the speed with which we could do that if things escalate in a major way over the coming hours and days.”

The US State Department has said “it is an unalloyed good” that the leader Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah “is no longer with us” after Israel killed him over the weekend.

John Kirby, spokesman for the US State Department, said on Monday: “It is an unalloyed good that he is no longer with us.”