An Israeli soldier stands inside a Hezbollah tunnel that crosses from Lebanon to Israel, on the border between Israel and Lebanon in northern Israel, on May 29, 2019.
Times of Israel – Sept 30, 2024
Israeli troops have entered Hezbollah tunnels dug near the border with Israel as part of small-scale forays into southern Lebanon, as it gears up for a threatened ground incursion, according to a report in a US newspaper Monday.
Reports in foreign press in recent days have indicated that Israel Defense Forces soldiers have been carrying out limited cross-border raids to collect information or damage Hezbollah’s capabilities to attack Israel.
According to the Monday report in The Wall Street Journal, the missions, described as “targeted,” have involved special forces entering a network of subterranean warrens Hezbollah is widely understood to have dug near the Blue Line separating Israel from Lebanon.
The report, which cited unnamed sources familiar with the matter, said the raids have taken place over the past months, as well as more recently, with troops “probing” and gathering intelligence, as activity ramps up ahead of a possible ground offensive.
Israel has stepped up fighting against Hezbollah in recent weeks as it seeks to push the group away from the border and halt nearly a year of rocket and drone attacks on northern Israel that have left a swath of Israeli towns scarred and uninhabited.
The push has included heavy airstrikes on Hezbollah’s leadership, including a Friday strike that killed its chief, Hassan Nasrallah, attacks on weapons stores and missile launchers and actions of a more covert nature, such as a wave of electronic device explosions that killed dozens of members of the Iran-backed group, but which has not been claimed by Israel.
According to The Wall Street Journal, a wider troop incursion could occur as early as this week, significantly ramping up fighting, though some have interpreted increasingly bellicose comments from Israel on the possibility of a ground war as part of a campaign meant to pressure a weakened Hezbollah into withdrawing as part of a ceasefire.
Sources cited by the newspaper were quoted as saying the timing could still change, with Israel under heavy pressure from the US to hold back.
Since this month’s escalation, with Israeli airstrikes on the terror group this week killing more than 700 people in Lebanon, the US has repeatedly voiced opposition to any IDF ground invasion to target Hezbollah, calling instead for a diplomatic solution.
Speaking to troops from infantry and armored brigades in northern Israel on Monday, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant strongly hinted that the army was preparing to launch a ground offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“The elimination of Nasrallah is a very important step, but it is not everything. We will use all the capabilities we have,” Gallant said. “You are part of this effort.”
IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi was even clearer in comments last week, telling soldiers the army was readying to put boots on the ground in Lebanon.
The troops, he said, would “enter enemy territory, enter villages that Hezbollah has prepared as large military outposts, with underground infrastructure, staging points, and launchpads into our territory [from which Hezbollah intends] to carry out attacks on Israeli civilians.”
Hezbollah deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem vowed on Monday that his organization is ready for any potential ground operation by Israeli troops, in the first speech by an official of the terror group since its leader was killed.
“We will face any possibility and we are ready if the Israelis decide to enter by land and the resistance forces are ready for a ground engagement,” Qassem said in prerecorded remarks.
On Saturday, two US officials told ABC News that Israel does not appear to have decided whether to launch a full ground operation into Lebanon, but that it would likely be limited in scope if it does.
According to the report, the IDF believes that beyond airstrikes and assassinations, allowing residents to return home will also require damaging Hezbollah’s command and control, destroying its capabilities in the border area, and removing the threat of an invasion planned by the terror group’s elite Radwan Force.
Hezbollah is thought to have a tunnel network stretching hundreds of kilometers, Tal Beeri, an expert on underground warfare, told The Times of Israel in January.
In late 2018 and early 2019, Israel launched an operation to destroy a series of tunnels it said it discovered that stretched from Lebanese villages into Israel. Among them was a passageway with electricity, a rail system to move equipment and garbage and exit stairs, the army said at the time.
There have been several incidents of cross-border ground confrontations since Hezbollah-led forces began attacking communities and military posts in northern Israel on October 8, purportedly to support Hamas during the war in Gaza.
In April, four IDF soldiers were wounded in a blast that occurred as troops operated inside Lebanese territory. The military said at the time that the incident took place during “operational activity” carried out by troops of the Golani Brigade’s reconnaissance unit and the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit, on the Lebanese side of the border, several hundred meters from Israel’s fence.
On Friday, before the Beirut strike that killed Nasrallah, the military said that it had “great confidence” in its ability to carry out a ground maneuver, following experience gained by troops during the past 11 months of fighting in the Gaza Strip.
The IDF indicated that a ground offensive in Lebanon had been fully planned out, and it was being practiced by troops even as fighting was ongoing on several fronts.
The plans included operations in areas near the border as well as deep within Lebanon, according to the military. Still, officials have said the IDF aims for a ground operation to be as short as possible.
Once the fighting is over, the IDF said that it would need to enforce any ceasefire agreement with firepower and prevent Hezbollah from reestablishing itself close to Israeli border communities.
Also on Friday, the IDF said it had completed the mobilization of two reserve brigades — the Etzioni and Alon brigades — that were sent to northern Israel to bolster troops there, given the possibility of a ground offensive.
Emanuel Fabian and agencies contributed to this report.
I should have taken more notice yesterday when somebody said Israel could flood those tunnels with chlorine gas because it’s heavier than air and will sink to the lowest levels of the tunnels and make them unusable. So Israel gets a pass on chemical weapons now? All the flack the western media and politicians gave Bashar Al Assad after falsely accusing him of using chlorine gas when the White Helmets faked it.
Israel will invite more world condemnation if it resorts to chlorine gas. Just when you think they can’t get any worse they look like getting worse. Most decent people will cheer Israel’s collapse.
More tunnels just like in Ukraine – imagine that 🙂 And of course being “investigated” by jew “soldiers” ( A.K.A. murderers with yankee payed for guns )
The Times of Isra-hell 🙂 Ha Ha Ha.
two tier policing
Its ben shown by many people
that there is one law for one and another for others
the dozen or so white women who were beaten up at the
notting hill carnival, saw their attackers escape justice
the several stabbings did not raise waves but the UK folk who demonstrated against the government migrant dumping, all got long prison sentences
same as philip schofields brother got a prison sentence
yet philip who has done the same thing over many years to several boys walked free and even got his job back
philip said the hate against him was just anti semitism
NO it was for what he did to those young vulnerable boys
Court to hear Christian school worker’s appeal against dismissal over LGBT posts
Story by Callum Parke
The Court of Appeal is to hear a school worker’s challenge against her dismissal after she claimed she was sacked because of her Christian beliefs.
Kristie Higgs, 47, was dismissed for gross misconduct by Farmor’s School in Fairford, Gloucestershire, in 2019 after sharing Facebook posts criticising plans to teach LGBT+ homosexual relationships in primary schools. Mrs Higgs, from Fairford, shared and commented on posts which raised concerns about relationship education at her son’s Church of England primary school.
Pupils were to learn about the No Outsiders In Our School programme, a series of books teaching the Equality Act in primary schools, which state not all adult/children relationships are bad, as proved in the recent Philip Schofield case
I pray now that the Court of Appeal will make the right judgment and will make a ruling that protects Christian employees and parents’ freedom to express their beliefs without fear of being silenced
Mrs Higgs, who was posting on Facebook under her maiden name, shared two posts in October 2018 to about 100 supporters, one of which referred to “brainwashing our children”.
An anonymous complaint was made to the school and Mrs Higgs was suspended and, after a disciplinary hearing, dismissed for gross misconduct. Mrs Higgs, supported by the Christian Legal Centre, took the school to an employment tribunal, arguing she had been unlawfully discriminated against because of her Christian beliefs. The school denied dismissing the mother-of-two because of her religious beliefs and said she was sacked because of the language used in the posts, against adult/child relationships
and was against children have sex change operations
In its ruling in 2020, the tribunal concluded her religion was a “protected characteristic” as defined by the Equality Act, but the school dismissed her lawfully.
Mrs Higgs appealed against that judgment to the Employment Appeal Tribunal in London, which ruled in her favour but remitted the case to an employment tribunal for a fresh determination.
Her lawyers are now challenging the decision to order a new tribunal hearing.
Before the appeal, Mrs Higgs said: “I wouldn’t want any parent to go through what I have over the past five years. Nobody should be sacked for raising the concerns for children that I did in the way that I did.
“My posts were a warning and so much of what has happened in the debate over the past five years has vindicated me.
NEWS UPDATE
Court to hear Christian school worker’s appeal against dismissal over LGBT posts
Story by Callum Parke
The Court of Appeal is to hear a school worker’s challenge against her dismissal after she claimed she was sacked because of her Christian beliefs.
Kristie Higgs, 47, was dismissed for gross misconduct by Farmor’s School in Fairford, Gloucestershire, in 2019 after sharing Facebook posts criticising plans to teach LGBT+ homosexual relationships in primary schools. Mrs Higgs, from Fairford, shared and commented on posts which raised concerns about relationship education at her son’s Church of England primary school.
Pupils were to learn about the No Outsiders In Our School programme, a series of books teaching the Equality Act in primary schools, which state not all adult/children relationships are bad, as proved in the recent Philip Schofield case
I pray now that the Court of Appeal will make the right judgment and will make a ruling that protects Christian employees and parents’ freedom to express their beliefs without fear of being silenced
Mrs Higgs, who was posting on Facebook under her maiden name, shared two posts in October 2018 to about 100 supporters, one of which referred to “brainwashing our children”.
An anonymous complaint was made to the school and Mrs Higgs was suspended and, after a disciplinary hearing, dismissed for gross misconduct. Mrs Higgs, supported by the Christian Legal Centre, took the school to an employment tribunal, arguing she had been unlawfully discriminated against because of her Christian beliefs. The school denied dismissing the mother-of-two because of her religious beliefs and said she was sacked because of the language used in the posts, against adult/child relationships
and was against children having sex change operations
In its ruling in 2020, the tribunal concluded her religion was a “protected characteristic” as defined by the Equality Act, but the school dismissed her lawfully.
Mrs Higgs appealed against that judgment to the Employment Appeal Tribunal in London, which ruled in her favour but remitted the case to an employment tribunal for a fresh determination.
Her lawyers are now challenging the decision to order a new tribunal hearing.
Before the appeal, Mrs Higgs said: “I wouldn’t want any parent to go through what I have over the past five years. Nobody should be sacked for raising the concerns for children that I did in the way that I did.
“My posts were a warning and so much of what has happened in the debate over the past five years has vindicated me.