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The BBC sees troops and tanks massing near the border, as speculation mounts that Israel is planning a full-scale ground invasion to fight Hezbollah.
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The regular rumble of air strikes echoes over the shattered remains of Shia villages, destroyed during Israel's last ground war there in 2024.
A senior military official said on Thursday that Israeli ground forces were taking additional hilltops inside Lebanon - a defensive operation, he said, to better protect Israel's northern communities.
But there has been a significant military build-up here. On Friday morning we passed dozens of tanks and armoured bulldozers, newly-positioned right by the border, fuelling growing speculation that a full-scale ground invasion is planned.
Israel has issued a massive evacuation order for southern Lebanon, reaching roughly 27km (16 miles) inside the country.
The Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir has said the objective in Lebanon is disarming Hezbollah and that he will not let up until that is done.
"We may find ourselves manoeuvring into that area [south of the Litani river] in one capacity or another and we don't want civilians there," said the senior military official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"We have plans to go as deep as needed, including to the Litani River and further, if instructed," he said, adding that forces were in place to move immediately if ordered.
Hezbollah joined the war alongside its ally Iran on Monday and has been launching rockets and drones at northern Israel each day, most of which are intercepted by Israel's air defences.
Residents in one Israeli border community that was hit by a drone on Tuesday told us they had no plans to leave.
"Where would I go?" one neighbour told us, adding: "Jerusalem? Tel Aviv? It's more dangerous there now."
Israel's opposition leader Yair Lapid told a local television channel that Israel would "have no choice" but t
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