Amid a sharp escalation of violence between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon, the United States has decided to send additional troops to West Asia, the Pentagon announced on Monday. This move comes hours after Israeli airstrikes tragically killed 274 people, including 21 children, in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese health minister. This marks the deadliest cross-border escalation since the war in Gaza erupted on October 7th.
While the Pentagon press secretary, Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, declined to specify the number of troops or their mission, the US currently has approximately 40,000 troops stationed in the region. These new deployments follow significant strikes by Israeli forces against targets inside Lebanon, resulting in hundreds of casualties.
As Israel prepares for further operations, the State Department has issued a warning to Americans in Lebanon to evacuate due to the heightened risk of a regional war. The Israeli military has targeted approximately 800 Hezbollah sites in southern and eastern Lebanon, including a “targeted strike” in Beirut that reportedly killed a senior Hezbollah operative.
The escalating conflict has forced thousands of families from their homes in Lebanon. The Israeli military has warned residents of the Bekaa Valley to evacuate as it expands its strikes. Explosions near Baalbek, an ancient city in eastern Lebanon, have sent smoke billowing into the sky, with the National News Agency reporting further Israeli strikes in the region.
Hezbollah, a powerful political and military force in Lebanon, has engaged in near-daily fire exchanges with Israel in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas. The group claims to have launched “dozens of rockets” at two Israeli bases in response to Israeli attacks.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that the country is preemptively acting to change the “security balance” in the north. Hezbollah’s deputy chief, Naim Qassem, has declared the group is in a “new phase” of open conflict with Israel, prepared for “all military possibilities.”
The conflict has caused widespread displacement on both sides of the border, with tens of thousands fleeing their homes since the initial exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah in October. The Israeli military aims to “degrade threats” from Hezbollah, push them back from the border, and destroy infrastructure built by Hezbollah’s Radwan Force, according to an Israeli military official.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati has called on the United Nations and world powers to deter Israel’s “plan to destroy Lebanese villages and towns.” US President Joe Biden, Israel’s main ally and weapons supplier, has stated his administration will “do everything we can to keep a wider war from breaking out.”
The UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has warned of Lebanon becoming “another Gaza,” expressing concern that neither side is interested in a ceasefire. Masoud Pezeshkian, the recently elected president of Iran, a supporter of Hezbollah and Hamas, has accused Israel of seeking “to create this wider conflict.”
The UNIFIL peacekeeping force in south Lebanon has issued a warning that any further escalation could have “far-reaching and devastating consequences.”
The current conflict stems from Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, which has resulted in the deaths of over 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has led to the deaths of thousands in Gaza. The UN has described these figures as reliable.
