Israel's Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi has said the military must ready itself for continued combat in Lebanon, including possible expansion of its ground operations.
"While diplomatic efforts are underway to reach agreements in Lebanon, we must persist in preparing plans for ongoing combat, potentially widening and intensifying our ground maneuvers," Halevi said on Wednesday after a situational assessment, according to an official statement.
"We will implement these plans as needed," he added.
Halevi also noted that amid the current offensive, Israel, "according to plan," had struck multiple Hezbollah positions across southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, Beirut, and Syria, Xinhua news agency reported.
Also on Wednesday, an 18-year-old Israeli civilian was killed in northern Israel while working in an agricultural field, reportedly by a rocket launched by Hezbollah forces from Lebanon.
Israeli police identified the victim as Sivan Sade, a resident of Kibbutz Kfar Masaryk, correcting an earlier report from the national rescue service, which had mistakenly identified him as a foreign national.
Mateh Asher Regional Council head Moshe Davidovich told Kan Reshet Bet radio that Sade had gone to activate an irrigation system in the field.
"He followed safety protocols and lay on the ground, but there are no anti-rocket interceptors in these agricultural areas," Davidovich said.
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