Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israel was intensifying military operations in Lebanon by reinforcing the security buffer zone and securing strategic positions as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) expanded operations beyond previously held lines in southern Lebanon following a recent increase in Hezbollah drone attacks.
Separately, Israel’s political-security cabinet discussed efforts to avoid actions that could be seen as disrupting US negotiations over a proposed agreement to end the Iranian conflict, according to officials familiar with the discussions.
Senior political officials told top IDF commanders they did not want Israel “to be perceived as those sabotaging Trump’s agreement,” the officials said.
According to participants in the meeting, “freedom of action in Beirut is limited,” and the political leadership rejected a proposal by Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir to demolish buildings in Beirut’s Dahieh district.
An Iranian source told Al Jazeera that Tehran warned the United States that any Israeli strike on Beirut would seriously damage ongoing peace talks aimed at ending the conflict.
The Israeli military has so far refrained from striking the Lebanese capital.
The IDF said troops had expanded ground operations in several areas outside the established security perimeter in recent days in an effort to push Hezbollah operatives farther north and reduce the threat posed by explosive drones targeting northern Israeli communities.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Air Force intensified strikes against Hezbollah positions elsewhere in Lebanon, carrying out more than 100 attacks overnight and on Tuesday in the Beqaa Valley and across southern Lebanon.
