Tel Aviv [Israel], October 2: After much anticipation and military operations, Israel began its ground attack on Lebanon at dawn on October 1.
Yesterday morning, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced a ground military operation against Lebanon.
Limited attack
The Israeli military has begun a "limited" operation into Lebanon to target sites "posing an immediate threat to communities in northern Israel." The force entering Lebanon includes small teams of commandos, accompanied by air support and artillery fire from Israel. Tel Aviv has not announced exactly how deep into its neighbor it has advanced. Meanwhile, Lebanon has denied reports that it has withdrawn its troops from the border as Israeli forces advance.
However, according to observers, Tel Aviv's military operations in the neighboring country could expand to a larger scale as thousands of additional soldiers have arrived in northern Israel.
CNN quoted Israeli officials as saying that Hezbollah forces in Lebanon had tried to "infiltrate Israel" from the north. This violated a 2006 UN resolution , which is one of the reasons for Israel's ongoing limited attack. CNN also cited several other sources confirming that Israel has only carried out "sporadic" missions in Lebanon. This is the fourth time Israeli soldiers have openly entered Lebanon in nearly 50 years and the first time since Tel Aviv launched a 34-day military campaign in Lebanon in 2006.
The offensive comes after a series of Israeli raids on Hezbollah bases in Lebanon, killing many of the group's leaders, including leader Hassan Nasrallah and several commanders.
Israel's operational forecast
Responding to Thanh Nien yesterday, October 1, Dr. Ian Bremmer, President of Eurasia Group (USA) - the world's leading political risk research and consulting unit , said: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu really wants to bring 60,000 people in the north of the country who have evacuated back to their homes. Under no small amount of political pressure as Israel has suffered a lot of damage to important infrastructure and military forces, Mr. Netanyahu actually does not have many options left."
Recently, due to Hezbollah attacks, Israel has had to evacuate about 60,000 people from the northern area, near the border with Lebanon. Israeli public opinion has put pressure on the government to quickly bring these 60,000 evacuated people back home to stabilize their lives .
"US President Joe Biden has called on Israel to be cautious, but perhaps Tel Aviv feels that there are no consequences for ignoring the White House's call," Dr. Bremmer commented.
Also responding to Thanh Nien , US defense intelligence expert Carl O. Schuster commented: "Israel has assessed the risks and costs against the benefits, both militarily and geopolitically. They have learned lessons from the 2006 war as well as the current fighting situation in the Gaza Strip, so they have thorough preparation and specialized, in-depth training to fight in fortified positions and tunnels."
According to him, before entering Lebanon, the IDF conducted attacks with special forces, airstrikes and surveillance with drones overhead. Expert Carl O. Schuster also commented that Israel would only launch a ground attack deep into Lebanese territory, about a few dozen kilometers from the border.
"Tel Aviv wants to eliminate and destroy the short-range weapons that Hezbollah has used to attack residential areas in northern Israel. Tel Aviv also wants to destroy as much of Hezbollah's military infrastructure as possible, and kill or capture any Iranian advisers present. However, I do not think they will occupy southern Lebanon as they did in the 1980s and 1990s. That would lead to an insurgency like Tel Aviv faced in southern Lebanon from the late 1980s until the Israeli army withdrew from there in the 1990s," former colonel Schuster predicted.
More specifically, he said that Israel probably intends to complete its campaign in Lebanon within two months.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper