Law, Power, and Justice

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Israel said early Tuesday that its forces had crossed into Lebanon in an operation aimed at Hezbollah targets in the border region, the first Israeli ground invasion in the country since 2006.


Israel appears to have committed fewer soldiers to the opening phase of its Lebanon invasion than it did to the invasion of Gaza last October. The Israeli military said on Tuesday that a single division — which typically numbers more than 10,000 soldiers — was involved in the Lebanon operation overnight, and it was unclear how many of the troops had crossed the border. By contrast, the military invaded Gaza with two divisions, even though Gaza is far smaller and flatter than southern Lebanon.



Israel and Hezbollah have fought wars before, most recently in 2006, a monthlong conflict that ended with a United Nations cease-fire resolution calling on both sides to retreat from a 20-mile buffer zone in southern Lebanon along Israel’s northern border.
But Hezbollah never withdrew from the region, and


Pentagon Sends Additional Troops to the Middle East
The additional forces, which one official placed at between 2,000 and 3,000, will bolster security for the 40,000 U.S. troops already in the region and help defend Israel, officials said.


Israeli commando units have made brief incursions into Lebanon in recent days to prepare for a possible wider ground invasion, according to several Israeli officers and officials and a senior Western official. But American officials said on Monday that they believed that the invasion would be limited.
The Israeli and Western officials said the raids were focused on gathering intelligence about Hezbollah’s positions near the border, as well as identifying the Iranian-backed group’s tunnels and military infrastructure, in order to attack them from the air or the ground. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military matter. The Israeli military declined to comment.


Israel’s New Campaign Against Hezbollah: An attack on a secret weapons lab in Syria was one of the most daring Israeli operations against the Iranian proxy group in years, covert in name only.