Hezbollah warns ‘we’re ready for WAR’ as Israeli special forces begin raids & 13k troops join tanks massing at border
Hezbollah's terror boss meanwhile was killed on Friday when Israel hammered a suburb of Beirut
HEZBOLLAH chiefs have warned they are “ready” for war as Israel appears to gear up for a ground invasion.
Military bosses have massed tanks and 13,000 reservists at its northern border with Lebanon to pave the way for a bloody showdown with Hezbollah terror troops.
It comes as Israel escalates hostilities against Iran’s allies in the Middle East – amid fears the region could be on the brink of all-out war.
US sources said Israel Defense Forces had already launched or prepared cross-border operations to take out threatening Hezbollah positions.
The probing missions by special forces teams were ordered as thousands of Israeli reservists were drafted to join a new ground war across the northern frontier.
An Israeli official today told the Telegraph: “They [elite troops] are targeting key sites which have been built across the border zone.”
Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant confirmed a wider offensive was under discussion as dozens of Merkava battle tanks were seen rumbling towards Lebanon.
Three more battalions of around 3,000 reserve soldiers were called up after two brigades, totalling around 10,000, were moved north.
Crack commando units battle-hardened from months of fighting Hezbollah’s Hamas allies in Gaza were also in position and have been training for the bloody ground incursion.
Miles of terror tunnels, minefields and booby traps laid by their dug-in enemy await the invading force – along with fanatical militia stung by the loss of their leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
But the assassination of the Islamist firebrand on Friday along with a raft of commanders and the stunning success of its pager and walkie-talkie blitz has put Israel on the front foot.
And commanders are now urging PM Benjamin Netanyahu to press home their advantage to secure a buffer zone which will make it safe for 60,000 Israeli refugees to return home.
Hezbollah’s deputy chief Naim Qassem today insisted the terror group is ready for any Israeli ground offensive.
He vowed Hezbollah will continue with its mission against Israel despite the loss of its leader and other top brass.
Qassem said: “We will not budge an inch from our position in supporting Gaza and Palestine and defending Lebanon and its people.
“We are confident the Israeli enemy will not achieve its aims.
“We know that the battle is long and the options are open to us, and we are ready for the enemy to enter by land, as the resistance forces are ready for the ground encounter.”
Qassem also said Nasrallah will be replaced as chief at the “earliest opportunity”.
It comes as a Hamas chief who led its terrorists in Lebanon was today killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin died alongside his wife, son, and daughter in a blast that targeted their house in a Palestinian refugee camp in the city of Tyre.
Israel claimed responsibility for taking Sherif out, saying he was responsible for coordinating Hamas’ “terror activities” in Lebanon with Hezbollah fighters.
The IDF and the Israel Security Authority said: “He was responsible for Hamas’ efforts in Lebanon to recruit operatives and acquire weapons.”
In a separate strike in the early hours of Monday, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said three of its leaders were killed in Beirut’s Kola district.
It is the first attack within the city limits.
The death toll across Lebanon has now topped 1,000 as Israel ramps up strikes against Hezbollah.
Nasrallah – Hezbollah’s terror boss – was killed on Friday when Israel hammered a suburb of Beirut with dozens of airstrikes targeting the group’s HQ.
Israeli strikes ripped through the 64-year-old’s underground bunker – eliminating the firebrand Secretary-General after a 32-year reign.
Wreckage from Friday’s strike is still smouldering more than two days on.
Hezbollah has also confirmed that Nabil Kaouk, the deputy head of its Central Council, was killed Saturday.
He is the seventh senior Hezbollah leader killed in Israeli strikes in little over a week.
They include the group’s founding members who had evaded death or detention for decades.
Ali Karaki, another senior commander, died in the strike that killed Nasrallah.
Israel says at least 20 other Hezbollah militants were killed, including one in charge of Nasrallah’s security detail.
In response to the dramatic escalation in Israeli strikes on Lebanon, Hezbollah significantly increased its rocket attacks in the past week.
According to the Israeli military, it has spiralled from several dozen to several hundred daily.
The attacks injured several people and caused damage, but most of the rockets and drones were intercepted by Israel’s air defence systems or fell in open areas.
Experts have warned Israeli forces could march across the border imminently as tensions spiral.
Analysts said terror group Hezbollah are ready for a “fight to the death” against Israel should they invade – with Iran ready to pounce and send the region into chaos.
Hezbollah has been decimated from the ground up by Israel – with their top brass being eliminated one-by-one.
Intelligence expert Anthony Glees told The Sun: “I now expect within hours that the Israeli army is going to march into southern Lebanon in the first instance, and we will see yet a further escalation.
“If Hezbollah won’t hand over their weapons and they won’t then the Israeli Defense Force is going to go in there and take the weapons off them.”
Commanders are now urging PM Benjamin Netanyahu to press home their advantage to secure a buffer zone which will make it safe for 60,000 Israeli refugees to return home.
Towns along the frontier have been evacuated ever since Hezbollah launched attacks in support of Hamas after the October 7 massacres in which savages slaughtered 1,200.
But Israel’s ramped up blitz in recent days has now forced up to a million Lebanese people to flee the southern war zone and Bekaa Valley Hezbollah strongholds.
An Israeli invasion will aim to push Hezbollah forces back across the Litani River running east to west above territory north of the frontier.
Hezbollah was supposed to have left the strip of land under the terms of a 2006 ceasefire deal but has continued to fire more than 9,000 rockets from bases in the area since October 7.
