US continues to see Israel's operation across Lebanese border as 'limited': Pentagon

WASHINGTON

Israel is conducting a "limited" operation across the Lebanese border to remove the Hezbollah group's infrastructure, the Pentagon said Thursday.

"All indications that we have right now are that Israel continues to conduct limited ground operations across the border to remove Hezbollah attack infrastructure," Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters.

Ryder said long-term security and stability can be achieved through diplomatic means.

"In terms of their ground operations, what we continue to see is limited in scope," he stressed.

The US continues to have conversations with its Israeli partners in terms of the size and scope of what they are doing, he said, “recognizing… the importance of not only enabling the defense of Israel but also thinking through what's next in terms of regional security and stability, taking civilian safety into account in terms of planning and operations.”

Israel has been mounting massive airstrikes across Lebanon against what it claims are Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23 that have killed more than 1,323 people and injured nearly 3,700.

The aerial campaign is an escalation of the year-long cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of Tel Aviv’s brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed nearly 42,000 people, mostly women and children, since a cross-border incursion by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year.

Despite international warnings that the Middle East region is on the brink of a regional war amid Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, Tel Aviv expanded the conflict by launching a ground incursion into southern Lebanon on Oct. 1.