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Israel has informed the United States that it is carrying out limited ground operations targeting Hezbollah infrastructure in Lebanon, which is close to Israel’s border, the Foreign Ministry said on Monday.
“This is what they have told us that they are currently conducting limited operations targeting Hezbollah infrastructure near the border,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
Confirming that they were limited ground operations, he said: “That is our understanding.”
Signs rose on Monday that Israel was on the verge of sending ground troops into Lebanon, two weeks after an attack on the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia that killed its leader, Seyed Hassan Nasrallah.
A US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that the position of Israeli troops suggested that a ground incursion could happen very soon.
After two weeks of intense airstrikes and a series of assassinations of Hezbollah commanders, Israel has suggested more strongly than ever that a ground attack is imminent.
Israeli strikes on militant targets in Lebanon are part of a conflict that stretches from Gaza and the Palestinian territories of the occupied West Bank to Iranian-backed groups in Yemen and Iraq. The tension has raised fears that the United States and Iran will become embroiled in a conflict.
Miller said the U.S. continues to support a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, but added that military pressure can sometimes trump diplomacy. He warned that military pressure could also lead to miscalculations and unintended consequences.
(Other than the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
