RITTER: Southern Lebanon Would be a Death Trap for Israeli Ground Forces

Scott Ritter, the former UN weapons inspector, said in an interview Wednesday that Israel would not be able to dislodge Hezbollah forces from the south and a ground campaign launched today would be a death trap.

“It's the same approach they have towards Gaza,” he told the “Dialogue Works” podcast. “There’s no Israeli unit, other than I had full of special forces units, saying, ‘I want to go into Gaza…I’m ready’…They’ve been to Gaza. They’re all dying; they’re all being wounded; they recognize the futility of the operation. So there’s a lot of political posturing by [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu… His war cabinet has rejected his demands, and the United States said, ‘No, we’re not going to facilitate this.”

Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the IDF chief of staff, said earlier that Israel is planning for a ground offensive, according to The Times of Israel. He told soldiers that their “military boots will enter enemy territory.”

“Your military boots will enter enemy territory, enter villages that Hezbollah has prepared as large military outposts, with underground infrastructure, staging points, and launchpads into our territory [which Hezbollah intends] to carry out attacks on Israeli civilians. Your entry into those areas with force, your encounter with Hezbollah operatives, will show them what it means to face a professional, highly skilled, and battle-experienced force. You are coming in much stronger and far more experienced than they are. You will go in, destroy the enemy there, and decisively destroy their infrastructure. These are the things that will enable us to safely return the residents of the north afterward.”

Ritter said Israel is not prepared to go into a full-scale conflict with Hezbollah.