HA number of Israeli tanks are gathering at the border of Lebanon as there are fears that it will attack the country. The Israel Defense Forces also announced that it has mobilized two reserve brigades to operate on the northern border.
The tanks and soldiers were photographed after Hezbollah confirmed that its leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an air strike on Friday in Beirut along with other top commanders, according to British broadcaster SkyNews.
On Monday, Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Kassem pledged in a televised announcement that the militant group would continue to fight, saying it was ready to continue its offensive against Israel, including a possible attack on the ground.
“Israel could not affect our (military) power,” Kassem said, according to the Associated Press. “There are deputy commanders and there are those who will fill the gaps if the commander is injured in any position.”
More than 1,000 people have been killed as a result of Israeli strikes in the past two weeks, a quarter of them women and children, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. The death toll is expected to rise as rescuers sort through dozens of destroyed buildings.
An estimated one million Lebanese may have been displaced by the conflict, Prime Minister Najib Mikati said. He added that the rate of migration is the largest in Lebanon’s history.
Attacks have been concentrated in areas south of Beirut but an airstrike hit a building in the inner city on Monday, the first such incident in a year of unrest.
Hezbollah has responded to Israel’s massive escalation by firing rockets into Israeli territory, ranging from dozens to several hundred daily, the IDF said. The attack injured a few people but most of the rockets and drones were intercepted by planes or fell in open areas.
The Biden Administration had called for a 21-day ceasefire following the pager and walkie-talkie attacks on September 17 and 18. that marked the beginning of the rate hike.
Read more: Fear Grips Lebanon After Twin Pager Deaths and Radio Blasts
Israel’s goal is to end Hezbollah’s rocket fire in northern Israel to ensure the return of tens of thousands of displaced residents. “Endless war with Hezbollah, certainly with Iran, is not the way to do that. If you want to bring those people home safely and stably, we believe the diplomatic approach is the right way,” John Kirby, White House national security spokesman, told CNN on Sunday.
Kirby also said that Nasrallah’s killing was “good for the region, good for the world.”
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant delivered his speech to the Israeli soldiers on the northern border on Monday and said that Israel’s attack on Hezbollah was not over yet.
“The elimination of Nasrallah is a very important step, but it is not everything. We will use all the skills we have,” said Gallant, according to a report by the Times of Israel. “If someone on the other side doesn’t understand what these skills mean, it’s all skills and you’re part of this effort.”
Hezbollah, with tens of thousands of soldiers and long-range missiles capable of striking deep into Israeli territory, is the world’s most powerful non-state actor. But its command structure has been “erased,” Kirby said.
“We are looking at what they are doing to try to fill this leadership gap,” he added.