Fears of possible invasion grow as Israel amasses troops at Lebanese border

Israeli forces were visibly amassing at the border with Lebanon on Sunday morning, according to a Lebanese security source speaking to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity, as the Israeli military continues to pummel Lebanon following its assassination of Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah.

Anticipation of an incursion into the country spiked on Sunday morning, when United States media outlets cited two US officials reporting that the Israeli military had either begun or was about to begin small-scale operations on the border to take out Hezbollah positions there.

A second Lebanese security source denied to Mada Masr that Israel was advancing into Lebanese territory.

The first security source, who was near the border in the last 24 hours, could see the Israeli movements visible along the border and described them as “unusual,” fearing that the military buildup on the border could indicate not just an advance but a wider-scale invasion.

A source from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), who spoke to Mada Masr on Saturday night, said that if Israel continues to amass troops along the border, an invasion is a “possible scenario.”

A proposal for a 21-day ceasefire put forward by the United States, France and a number of other western and regional powers last week was all but ignored by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose office put out a statement on Thursday to only say that he had not responded.

On Friday, Lebanese House Speaker and Amal Party head Nabih Berri said that the ceasefire must be implemented, adding that Israel had undermined the initiative. 

Diplomatic sources speaking to Mada Masr said that even if Israel agrees to a ceasefire in Lebanon, the impasse between the two would be difficult to resolve in talks.

Former Defense Minister and head of Israel’s National Unity Party Benny Gantz reportedly encouraged a ground invasion of Lebanon on Sunday in the event that a “strong and reliable” agreement is not reached.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s office said on Sunday that he was conducting an “operational situation assessment” of expanding operations in the northern area. Israeli military Chief of Staff Herzi Helevi said last week that a ground operation was being prepared, informing soldiers that “military boots will enter enemy territory.”

Wave of displacement builds as raids continue to target Lebanon’s south, east

As Lebanon commences a three-day period of national mourning to commemorate the passing of Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, Nasrallah’s body was recovered intact, Reuters reported on Sunday.

Nasrallah’s leadership of over 30 years ended on Friday night with his assassination by Israeli forces, who launched a massive raid on the southern suburbs of Beirut. At least six other people were killed in the raid, according to a preliminary count from the Lebanese Health Ministry, which stressed that search and rescue operations were ongoing.

Residents of the southern Beirut area, thousands of whom have already been displaced by continuous bombardment throughout Friday night, Saturday and Sunday, were once again ordered to leave their homes on Saturday evening, as were residents of Beqaa and the south.

Speaking to Reuters, Nasser Yassin, head of the Lebanese National Committee for the Coordination of Disaster Response Operations, said that around one million people are internally displaced in the country, including hundreds of thousands since Friday.

The Beqaa and the south were subject to ongoing air raids throughout Saturday evening and into the night, with villages as well as more crowded urban sites bombarded, killing over a dozen people. 

Four ambulance workers for the Islamic Message Scouts, a faith-based paramedic response organization, were killed in a raid which targeted their center in Tayr Dibba in the South Governorate’s Sur District. Three resistance fighters were also killed in a raid on the neighboring governorate of Nabatieh, according to the Lebanese National News Agency.

In the northern Beqaa, six people were killed in a raid on a residential building in the town of Ain.

Israel continues to target senior Hezbollah members in Beirut, weapons production sites on Lebanese-Syrian border

The Israeli military conducted raids on Saturday night at a warehouse near Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport and on a site in Choueifat to the south east of Beirut, while it launched another raid on Dahiyeh on Sunday afternoon. A source close to Hezbollah told Mada Masr that the target was Abu Ali Reda. Hezbollah later issued a statement denying that Reda had been killed.

The Israeli military also claimed to have killed Nabil Qaouk, the head of Hezbollah’s preventative security unit and a member of its executive council, and Hassan Khalil Yassin, a Hezbollah intelligence official.

Hezbollah announced on Sunday the martyrdom of Commander Ali Karake, who it said was killed in the Friday raid on Dahiyeh.

Israel also launched an airstrike at the Lebanese-Syrian border on Saturday night. In a statement, it claimed it had conducted “a series of targeted strikes” on the border in recent days to target sites where Hezbollah manufactures and transfers weapons.

Israeli press reported that Israel is imposing a "military closure" on Lebanon, to prevent arms reaching the country via ground crossings and via the international airport in Beirut.

Meanwhile in Iraq, a key part of the routes exporting weapons into Lebanon, Secretary-General of the Iraqi Sayyid al-Shuhada Brigades, Abu al-Ala al-Wala'i, vowed to continue to strike Israel and the US in comments on Saturday. "We will continue the battle to its end if the brutality in Gaza and Lebanon does not stop. We defended the holy sites in Syria and Iraq and we will complete the path to liberating Al-Aqsa."

An Iraqi security source told Mada Masr that "threats arrived as messages from Israel to the Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, exactly similar to the messages that arrived to the Lebanese government days and months before the Israeli strike on the party's strongholds.”

Hezbollah launches rocket salvos toward settlements, military sites

Hezbollah launched several rocket salvos on Israeli-held territory overnight. Sirens sounded at Occupation settlements in the West Bank located 140 kilometers away from the Lebanese border, according to Israeli media, marking an extension in the range of attacks that Hezbollah fighters have been directing at Israel since they began to launch low-grade shelling at Israeli sites in October.