Israeli Tanks Gather At Lebanese Border, Ready For Mass Invasion (Photos)

 Retired paratrooper David Turjman steps out of the betting shop on Qiryat Shemona’s all-but deserted high street as the column of Merkava main battle tanks thunder past.

“Kul hayom,” he mutters, nodding his head approvingly. It means “all day” in Hebrew.

All day in this picturesque but dangerous part of Israel, the roads have trembled with the vibration of armour heading north towards Lebanon and Hezbollah.

As well as tanks, The Telegraph saw the movement of heavy artillery pieces, military bulldozers and countless trucks carrying shells. Sounds included the wail of sirens, the rush of interceptor rockets tearing up out of the undergrowth and the thud of high explosives, on the ground and in the air.

It points to a potential major Israeli push deep into southern Lebanon, and a full-scale ground war, just as the Jewish state has been trying to topple the Iranian regime from the air.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers crossed the border on Tuesday, two days after Hezbollah broke a period of silence by firing rockets into Israel, in revenge for the killing of Ali Khamenei. It is a limited tactical operation so far – an incursion of a few hundred metres to secure high ground.

This has been accompanied by a substantial programme of air strikes, including the bombardment of Beirut, forcing the evacuation of 300,000 civilians from the south.

The big question is how far Israel will go.

A senior IDF officer in Northern Command told The Telegraph he would have enough troops and equipment in place for a broader offensive against the Shia terror group within two days. All he needed was the order to advance.

The officer said: “We have plans to go as deep as needed. All the way to the Litani river and further, if necessary. We’re ready to mobilise if such an order arrives.”

So far, Hezbollah has been playing a cat-and-mouse game amid the rubble of the border villages, having chosen Kornet and other anti-tank missiles as their weapons of choice.

This was never supposed to happen again.

Israel inflicted significant damage on Hezbollah in 2024. The exploding pager operation and intelligence-led air strikes in Beirut wiped out the Shia terror group’s leadership; a short but bloody ground incursion dismantled its forward positions.

Under the subsequent US-brokered ceasefire, the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) were supposed to disarm Hezbollah. However, even before the Iran-proxy started firing barrages of 15 to 20 Grad and other rockets south on Sunday, it was obvious that the LAF had largely failed.

Mr Turjman said: “People are saying enough. Look at this town – no one wants to live here any more because it’s so dangerous. We need the army to go far inside Lebanon and crush them so we can live in peace.”

The ground taken by the IDF since Tuesday includes what commanders refer to as the “first line” of Lebanese villages, which are now all but completely devoid of life.

It is a second and third line of villages, however, a few miles into the country, into which they believe Hezbollah fighters have infiltrated in significant numbers over recent weeks and months, that they are itching to assault.

The senior IDF official said: “They’ve been installing themselves there and we had intelligence that they were preparing to cross the border.”

He said the IDF ultimately saw the Lebanese army as “part of the solution, not the problem”, but that, currently, they lacked the will and capability to take on Hezbollah properly.

Furious at the ruinous impact this cycle of wars is having on ordinary Lebanese, Joseph Aoun, the president of Lebanon, this week banned all military activity by the terror group.

He has clamped down on the ability of Iranians to enter the country, in an attempt to stop Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp officers directing attacks on Israel from Lebanese soil.

At least seven Israeli soldiers have been injured since crossing the border, one seriously. It is thought at least 125 Lebanese have been killed. Down the hill from the fighting, Israelis are increasingly questioning the viability of life in the northernmost border towns.

So close are civilians here to the Hezbollah launch sites that the wail of sirens often starts too late for them to reach the concrete bomb shelters that punctuate the main streets before an air raid starts.

Mr Turjman laughs, pointing to the shelter about 30m from Mouritzio’s betting shop and café. He says: “You’d think it’s close enough, but often the warning comes with the explosion.”

He recalls how, when he was growing up, he would wash his hair quickly to reduce the time he could not hear a siren. His two daughters were born in Qiryat Shemona, but – like many of the town’s younger people – choose to live in other parts of Israel.

Israel has an unhappy history of invasions into Lebanon. It has paid a high price for them, in terms of soldiers’ lives and, at times, its reputation abroad. However, there is a feeling (not for the first time) that the endless emergencies to its north cannot be allowed to go on forever.

In a sign of bipartisan support for a potentially deeper operation, Yair Lapid, the leader of the opposition, said Israel had no choice but to create a “sterile zone” in the south of Lebanon. Some advocate pushing as far as the Litani River, which is 12 miles from the border at its closest point.

That would probably attract criticism from large sections of the international community without necessarily making Israelis safer.

On Friday, Volker Türk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said a blanket evacuation order could breach international law. Yet most of Hezbollah’s rocket and drone launch sites are further north than the river.

In Metula, which is at the tip of the “finger” of Israeli territory that sticks into Lebanon, Avi Nadiv, the deputy major, has almost finished rebuilding his house, which was all but destroyed by two rockets in June 2024.

He points to the high ground over the border, and the ugly wall just beyond the vineyards. To the north-east, the snow-capped summit of Syrian-controlled Mount Hermon glints in the morning sun.

Mr Nadiv says: “Last night was scary. There were rockets all night and the sound of IDF shooting. It’s so beautiful here, but really challenging. My three children were born here, I want people to stay.”

About 2,300 residents were forced to leave when Hezbollah began attacking Israel in support of Hamas following the Oct 7, 2023 terror attacks.

Mr Nadiv says about 1,300 have returned, adding: “That time away was hard. We had to creep back in the evenings to collect our possessions, like thieves in the night. We’re not doing that again.”

He points up the hill. “We need to finish Hezbollah here.”