Israeli Troops Prepare to Invade Lebanon

The Israeli army stated, Wednesday, it is preparing for a ground operation in Lebanon as airstrikes continue to pound the country. 

“We are not stopping, the fighter jets have been striking all day [in Lebanon], and we are preparing for the maneuver,” Israeli Chief of Staff Gen. Herzi Halevi said during an exercise in the north, according to a military statement.

He visited the 7th Brigade at the northern border, along with the commanding officer of the Northern Command, the commanding officer of the 98th Division, the commanding officer of the Ground Forces Training Center, and the commanding officer of the 7th Brigade, the statement added according to the Anadolu news agency.

“You hear the jets overhead; we have been striking all day. This is both to prepare the ground for your possible entry and to continue degrading Hezbollah,” Halevi told soldiers.

“Today, Hezbollah expanded its range of fire, and later today, they will receive a very strong response. Prepare yourselves,” he said.

Erlier, the army said that it struck over 280 Hezbollah-linked targets in Lebanon since Wednesday morning.

The army called up two reserve brigades to the northern border with Lebanon early Wednesday amid its ongoing attacks on the country.

The mobilization of reserve forces signals potential preparations for ground operations.

Israel has launched waves of deadly airstrikes on Lebanon since Monday morning, killing nearly 610 people and injuring over 2,000 others, according to Lebanese health authorities.

Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in cross-border warfare since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza, which has killed over 41,400 people, mostly women and children, following a cross-border attack by Hamas last Oct. 7.

The international community has warned against the strikes on Lebanon, as they raise the specter of spreading the Gaza conflict regionally.

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Bibi-Gallant: Israeli Politics in Atrocious State

CROSSFIREARABIA – Former Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon lashed out at the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant over the estranged relations between the two men despite Israel’s critical war in Gaza and north of the country.

Netanyahu is under pressure to sack Gallant but somehow he can’t bring himself to do so, fearing a political backlash from his own Likud party. Yet he is under constant pressure from the extreme rightwing like Itamar Ben-Gavir and Bezalel Smotrich who keep threatening to leaving his government and thus bring it down if the war doesn’t continue and Hamas is brought down which many believe is an impossible task.

Meanwhile the United States wants to keep Yoav Gallant who they believe he is more moderate than his prime minister. This emanates from his utterings that the Israel army must not state in the Philadelphia axis but need to withdraw to the back of the Gaza Strip.

Another bone of contention is the fact that Gallant does not widen Israel’s war into Lebanon before the issue of the dwindling hostages – put now at 100-or-so – is resolved. Netanyahu wants the exhausted Israeli army to switch directions and go into Lebanon and thus widen the war and keep it going.

This is something that is against the interests of the United States which believes that the war must be contained within the framework of Israel and Gaza rather then moving to other territories and is continually push for a political solution.

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Top Israeli Military Chief Quits His Job Over 7 October

Israeli chief of staff Herzi Halevi made a dramatic announcement in the Israeli media he would resign in the coming December.

This piece of news is currently trending on the social with many speculating over the reasons for his acquittal amidst a war on Gaza that continues full blast ahead.  

His resignation, along with a string of others is being made for the failure to stop the 7 October attacks, 2023 in which Hamas fighters invaded Israeli territory took back to Gaza 250 hostages in never-before events in which up to 1200 Israelis were killed.

Israel’s Channel 12 broadcaster said Halevi decided to step down at the end of this year, pending the conclusion of investigations into the Israeli military’s failure to respond effectively to the Hamas attacks according to Anadolu.

Halevi disclosed his plan to step down during a conversation with his associates, indicating that he believes the end of the year is an appropriate time to announce his resignation, reports continued.

By late December, Tel Aviv is expected to complete its investigations into the army’s failure to thwart Hamas’s attack on 7 October, the Turkish news agency stated.

Halevi’s expected resignation comes after chief of the Israeli army’s intelligence Unit 8200 Brigadier General Yossi Sariel quit his post over the failure to prevent the 7 October events, according to Israeli media.

He is one of seven top army officials who resigned after criticism from different sections of the political and military establishments for failing to protect Israelis and stop the Hamas incursion.

In the last three months, the Israeli army’s Gaza Division commander, Brigadier General Avi Rosenfeld, head of the Shin Bet security agency’s Southern District, and an intelligence officer in the Gaza division have all resigned because of pressure.

On 3 September Tamir Yadai, the chief of the Israeli army’s ground forces, resigned for “personal reasons” after three years in his post.

Major General Aharon Haliva, head of the Israeli army’s Military Intelligence Directorate, resigned on 22 April for failing to predict the Hamas attacks into the Israeli territories that sorround Gaza.

And before that Brigadier General Amit Saar, head of the Military Intelligence Directorate’s Research Division, resigned in the first week of February 2024 “due to personal reasons, unrelated to the unit’s failure to sound the alarm about the 7 October attack, but over illness,” according to Israeli media reports.

More than 41,100 people, mostly women and children, have since been killed and over 95,100 injured, since Israel started its military offensive on Gaza after 7 October.

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Resignation of Top Chief Shows Deep Turmoil in Israeli Army

The Israeli occupation army Ground Forces Commander Tamir Yedie resigned his post “for personal reasons,” it was reported by the Israeli media.

The resignation of the top commander has been trending on social media ever since it was announced with his name trending.

An Israeli military statement did not provide further details about Yadai’s resignation, which came after he served three years in his position according to Anadolu.

His resignation maybe seen as a protest at the way the Israeli war is being handled in Gaza and the current rift between Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The latter insists that the army must continue fighting against Hamas and the Palestinian resistance groups while Gallant is in favor of a breakthrough political deal that would see the return of the 100-or-so remaining hostages.

Also Yadai’s sudden resignation reflects deep-seated dismay within the Israeli army who privately feel they are being made to do an impossible task in Gaza.

Last April, 2024 head of the Military Intelligence Division Aharon Haliva resigned, and the Israeli media then expected a series of resignations in the Israeli army leadership after the launch of internal investigations relating to the military and intelligence failure in repelling the Al-Aqsa Flood operation by Al-Qassam Brigades on 7 October, 2023 according to the Palestine Information Center.

It was then expected among the military leaders that would resign were Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, his deputy Amir Baram, commander of the Gaza Division Avi Rosenfeld and commander of the Southern Command Yaron Finkelman, although he had been in his position for only two months before 7 October.

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Israeli Army in Fix Because of Soldiers Shortage

The Israeli army is so short up for manpower it’s calling up its reserve soldiers who were previously exempted from service.

This order is coming from the Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant who have cancelled all previous exemtions from the Israeli army due to the shortage in the number of soldiers.

The army and the Minister’s office have confirmed this step comes “after an assessment of the situation and the scope of activity of regular and reserve forces, and as part of the process that the army is planning to increase the number of individuals serving in it.”

The army is facing an acute shortage of 50,000 soldiers as the fighting in Gaza continues, and the confrontation with Hezbollah in Lebanon  could expand into a full-scale war.

Former head of the Israeli army’s Soldiers’ Complaints Division, Yitzhak Brick said the army is facing a catastrophic situation.

The retired general blamed Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi for not planning to make up for the shortage in ground forces after they were reduced by six divisions over the past 20 years.

He said this “makes it impossible to win in the Gaza Strip, let alone win a regional war in which fighting must be fought in multiple arenas at the same time.”

The Israeli government has ordered the immediate recruitment of 3,000 from the ultra-Orthodox section. It says this would plug the gap at this initial stage. Galant however wants to recruit an additional 10,000 soldiers immediately to fill some of the army’s manpower shortage according to Jo24.

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