Israel said its troops are now active in southern Lebanon in what the Israel Defense Forces called "limited, localized, and targeted ground raids" targeting Hezbollah positions.
Israel believes it has eliminated around 30 top Hezbollah leaders over the last several weeks, including Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, U.S. and Israeli officials said.
Iran to launch ballistic missiles at Israel 'imminently,' US official says
A senior White House official told ABC News on Tuesday that the U.S. "has indications that Iran is preparing to imminently launch a ballistic missile attack against Israel."
"We are actively supporting defensive preparations to defend Israel against this attack," the official added.
"A direct military attack from Iran against Israel will carry severe consequences for Iran."
Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters, "At this moment we don't identify an aerial threat from Iran."
"The U.S. informed us that Iran is preparing to fire directly on Israel," he said, asking the public to be "responsible and vigilant and I will be here to update you."
A senior Israeli official told ABC News, "If Iran attacks Israel the reaction will be severe."
-ABC News' Selina Wang, Joe Simonetti, Jordana Miller and Eric Avram
8:49 AM EDT
Israeli special ops teams active in Lebanon for almost a year, IDF says
Israel special operations teams have been operating in southern Lebanon since November, an Israeli security source said Tuesday, conducting around 70 missions in groups of 20 to 40 operators.
Israeli soldiers are pictured close to the Lebanon border in northern Israel on Oct. 1, 2024.
Jim Urquhart/Reuters
The troops spent around 200 nights inside Lebanon, making it the most intense series of special operations missions in Israel's history, the official said.
The units operated between 1 and 2 miles inside Lebanese territory, the official said, blowing up and dismantling hundreds of Hezbollah facilities including tunnels.
Some tunnels doubled as weapons caches and others stretched to the Israeli border. Officials said on Tuesday they believed Hezbollah was planning an imminent "Oct.7-style invasion" of northern Israel.
The security source claimed that Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force was at times as little as six hours from launching such an attack. The security source claimed that Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force was at times as little as six hours from launching such an attack. ABC News was not immediately able to independently verify the official's claims.
The Israeli special operations units operating in southern Lebanon encountered almost no resistance, the official said, and did not suffer any casualties.
Though some 2,000 Radwan troops are believed to be present within 3 miles of Israel's border -- and between 6,000 and 8,000 in southern Lebanon in total -- they have not been fighting.
"During these operations, the troops also collected valuable intelligence and methodically dismantled the weapons and compounds, including underground infrastructure and advanced weaponry of Iranian origin," the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.
"Some of the weapons were recovered and taken by the soldiers back into Israeli territory."
-ABC News' Matt Gutman and Anna Burd
8:23 AM EDT
Airstrike hits southern Beirut suburb
The southern Beirut suburb of Dahiya was hit by a fresh airstrike early on Tuesday, as Israeli warplanes continued to bomb targets across Lebanon in pursuit of Hezbollah members and resources.
A man looks at the destruction at the site of an overnight Israeli airstrike on the Bir el-Abed neighborhood in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, on Oct. 1, 2024.
Anwar Amro/AFP via Getty Images
Lebanon's Health Ministry said Tuesday that the previous 24 hours saw at least 95 people killed and 172 wounded by Israeli strikes in Lebanon's southern regions, the eastern Bekaa Valley and Beirut.
-ABC News' Joe Simonetti
6:36 AM EDT
Hezbollah disputes Israel's incursion claims
Israeli claims that its soldiers began ground operations inside southern Lebanon "are false," Hezbollah said in a Tuesday statement.
"No direct ground clashes have yet taken place between the resistance fighters and the occupation forces," the group said, referring to Israeli troops.
"The resistance fighters are ready for a direct confrontation with the enemy forces that dare or attempt to enter Lebanese territory and inflict the greatest losses on them."
