Earlier, IDF Northern Command chief Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin said that the army needs to be prepared for a ground invasion.

Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi announced on Wednesday, Sept. 25 that the military was preparing a possible ground operation in Lebanon to remove the threat posed by Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

“You can hear the planes above us, we are attacking all day. Both to prepare the area for the possibility of your entry [into Lebanon], and also to continue harming Hezbollah,” Halevi told troops during a drill.

“Hezbollah today expanded its [range] of fire. Later today, it will receive a very strong response,” the military leader vowed, referring to the terror group’s launch of a surface-to-surface ballistic missile towards Tel Aviv.

“Today we will continue, we do not stop, we continue to attack and continue to strike them everywhere. The goal is a very clear goal, to return the [evacuated] residents of the north safely,” Halevi declared.

“To do this, we are preparing the [ground] maneuver,” he concluded.

Earlier on Wednesday, IDF Northern Command chief Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin said that the army needs to be prepared for a ground invasion.

“We need to change the security situation. We need to be very strongly prepared to enter [Lebanon] in a [ground] maneuver,” Gordin stated.

“We have entered a new phase of the campaign, and we are now in ‘Operation Northern Arrows,’” he said during a visit with commanders and soldiers of the IDF’s 7th Brigade on the country’s northern border.

“The operation began with a significant blow to Hezbollah’s capabilities, focusing on their firepower capabilities, and a very significant hit on the organization’s commanders and operatives,” the military official added.

Also on Wednesday afternoon, the military announced it was deploying two additional reserve brigades, amounting to at least several thousand troops, for future “operational missions in the northern sector.”

“Their recruitment will allow the continuation of the war effort against the Hezbollah terror organization, the protection of the citizens of the State of Israel and the creation of the conditions for the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes,” the IDF said in a statement.

Earlier this week, the United States government voiced opposition to a ground maneuver in Lebanon to push Hezbollah away from the border.

“We obviously do not believe that a ground invasion of Lebanon is going to contribute to reducing tensions in the region, to preventing an escalatory spiral of violence,” a senior American official told AFP.

The U.S. official said that the Biden administration was against Israeli soldiers crossing the border as Washington works on a diplomatic “off-ramp” to the escalating conflict between Jerusalem and Hezbollah.

Jerusalem has escalated attacks on Hezbollah since adding the return of evacuated Israeli civilians to the north as an official war goal on Sept. 17.

Hezbollah has attacked Israel nearly daily since Oct. 8, firing thousands of rockets, missiles and drones. The attacks have killed more than 40 people and caused widespread damage. Tens of thousands of Israeli civilians remain internally displaced due to the ongoing violence.

Israel’s Security Cabinet, which is responsible for defense-related decisions and composed of senior ministers, was scheduled to meet on Wednesday night in the “pit,” the IDF’s underground command and control center in the Kirya military headquarters in central Tel Aviv.

Israeli Air Force fighter jets continued to pound Hezbollah targets across Lebanon on Wednesday, with the IDF announcing it launched airstrikes in the areas of Nabatieh and the Beqaa deep inside Lebanese territory.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Israeli jets struck almost 300 infrastructures used by the terror group, the IDF said, adding that the IAF “continues its efforts to damage and degrade the military capabilities” of Hezbollah.

Among the targets were 60 sites belonging to Hezbollah’s intelligence division. “The strikes eliminated intelligence-gathering tools, command centers, and additional infrastructure used by the terrorist army to build an intelligence situational assessment,” according to the IDF.

Meanwhile, three Israelis were wounded, one seriously, on Wednesday when Hezbollah rockets scored direct hits in northern communities.