US President Joe Biden has called for an immediate truce in the Middle East, even as anonymous officials in Washington leaked warning of an impending Israeli ground incursion into Lebanon.
The widely-anticipated invasion would come after more than a week of air and missile strikes that have reportedly claimed the lives of hundreds of Lebanese civilians, as well as several senior Hezbollah officials, including the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah.
“I’m more aware than you might know and I’m comfortable with them stopping,” Biden told reporters at the White House on Monday, after he was asked about reports of an impending Israeli offensive.
“We should have a ceasefire now,” the US president added, before walking away.
Shortly before Biden’s press conference, called to address hurricane damage to several US states, multiple media outlets reported that Israel had notified Washington of an upcoming military operation against Lebanon.
However CBS News quoted an anonymous US official as confirming that Israel intends to launch “a limited ground incursion” into its northern neighbor, which could begin “within hours.”
Fox News published the same quote, presumably from the same official, but described the timeline of the attack as “in the imminent future.”
The Washington Post likewise quoted an anonymous official who said that Israel had notified the US of a “limited ground operation… that could start imminently.”
The Israeli campaign would be “smaller” than the 2006 attack on Lebanon, and would focus on “clearing out” Hezbollah positions along the border, the source told the Post. Both Israel and Hezbollah claimed victory in the 2006 conflict but an Israeli government commission later called it a strategic defeat.
The chief of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) general staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said last week that the airstrikes against Hezbollah were preparation for a ground attack in which the IDF would “go in, destroy the enemy there, and decisively destroy their infrastructure.”
Hezbollah’s deputy leader, Naim Qassem, has said the “resistance forces are ready for a ground engagement” with Israeli troops.