US aware of Israeli plans to invade Lebanon: State Department
Israel has told the US about a number of operations, the US State Department said on Monday, adding that they have discussed reports of ground operations, and Israel has told Washington they are at this time limited operations focused on Hezbollah infrastructure near the border with Lebanon.
“They have been informing us about a number of operations; I know I’ve seen reports about ground operations. We’ve had some conversations with them about that,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on Monday. “They have at this time told us that those are limited operations focused on Hezbollah infrastructure near the border. But we’re in continuous conversations with them about it.”
Miller also said that the US “still supports” a ceasefire in Lebanon, “but at the same time, military pressure can at times enable diplomacy”, appearing to support Israel’s attacks on Lebanon.
So far military pressure has only gotten hostages and innocent civilians killed. It has the opposite effect.
However that's exactly what Netanyahu wants, he wants to start a war with Iran with US backing.
Majority of Palestinians support military resistance to Israel: Poll
Almost a year since the start of Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip, a public opinion poll conducted by the Jerusalem Media and Communication Centre has found that more people support military resistance as a means of achieving the national goals of the Palestinian people.
The percentage of those supporting military resistance, the poll showed, rose to 51.2 percent from 40.8 percent last May.
The poll was conducted in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, but did not include the Gaza Strip “given the inability to secure a random sample because of the current situation” in the besieged coastal enclave.
In contrast, the percentage of respondents who support peaceful, diplomatic and political action as a means of achieving national goals dropped from 44.5 percent last May to 35.7 percent.
Consensus growing in Western media on imminence of Israeli invasion of Lebanon
As we’ve been reporting, fears of an Israeli ground invasion of Lebanon have been growing today, after statements from Israel’s defence minister suggesting a “new phase” of the country’s offensive against Lebanon.
Reuters news agency has cited an unnamed US official, says that the movement and positioning of Israeli troops on the Lebanese border suggests an imminent ground invasion.
UK newspaper The Financial Times, also citing an unnamed US official, said that the US expects a ground invasion to begin soon, with the goal of clearing the Israel-Lebanon border of Hezbollah infrastructure.
The Washington Post and The New York Times also report that Israeli reservists are prepared for some kind of ground incursion into Lebanon.
Powerful members of the international community, including the US, have said they are firmly against any further escalation of the situation in Lebanon.
UN chief against any ground invasion of Lebanon
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is opposed to any ground invasion of Lebanon by Israel, which has continued its deadly aerial strikes on the country, his spokesman has said.
“We do not want to see any sort of ground invasion,” Guterres’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric told a media briefing.
Israeli strikes preventing UN peacekeepers in Lebanon from patrolling
United Nations peacekeepers from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) have been unable to conduct patrols because of the intensity of Israeli strikes, a UN spokesman has said.
“Our UNIFIL Blue Helmets remain in position in the mission’s area of responsibility, while the intensity of fighting is preventing their movements and ability to undertake their mandated tasks,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told a media briefing.
“Given the intensity of the rockets going back and forth, they are not able to do patrolling,” he added of the roughly 10,000-strong UN Interim Force In Lebanon.
UNIFIL has had a presence in Lebanon since 1978, when it was established by the UN Security Council.
