Report: Israel prepares plan to invade south Lebanon

Israel’s army has drawn up plans to invade southern Lebanon, British newspaper The Times said Monday.

"What happened in the south (of Israel during Hamas' Oct. 7 attack) is nothing compared to what they could do here," a senior Israeli officer told The Times.

"Israeli doctrine is to take the war to the other side," the officer added.

Since October 8, the day after the Israel-Hamas conflict started, the frontier between Lebanon and Israel has seen escalating exchanges of fire, mainly between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, which says it is acting in support of Hamas.

Fears of a widening war have been growing, with other Iran-backed groups attacking U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq and Syria, and Yemen's Houthi rebels targeting shipping in the Red Sea.

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen warned Sunday that ensuring the security of Israelis near the border meant pushing Hezbollah "north of the Litani River", some 30 kilometers north of the border. "There are two ways to do that: either by diplomacy or by force," Cohen said.

On Sunday, senior Hezbollah lawmaker Mohammed Raad, whose son was killed in an Israeli bombing last month, said the group was "not afraid of (Israel's) intimidation or the slogans it puts out via international intermediaries to remove our people" from parts of south Lebanon.