Israel must press home its advantage against Hezbollah and invade Lebanon

Israel has started to prepare for a ground invasion of Lebanon amid international calls for ceasefire. This is the next stage of Israel’s operation against Hezbollah – which began with exploding pagers and walkie-talkies, and continued with the killing of Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, as well as nearly all of the terror organisation’s top commanders.

The Israeli air force continues to bomb Hezbollah’s infrastructure and is preparing the ground for troops to enter southern Lebanon, which might happen later this week. Special units from the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have already carried out limited operations across the border, in order to gather vital information that will aid forces during a ground manoeuvre and reduce risk. 

The IDF’s mission will be to find and destroy Hezbollah’s assets, including tunnels and weapons caches. It remains to be seen whether forces will target the vast array of tunnels between Syria and Lebanon, used for smuggling weapons to Hezbollah.