Israel has dispatched infantry units into Lebanon.

Israeli infantry and engineering units have been sent into Lebanon for an assault on Hizbullah positions and strongholds near the Israeli border. The soldiers were said to be destroying Hizbullah forts and directing air strikes against suspected arsenals in southern Lebanon.

This is the beginning of a major operation,” a senior military source said.

The source said the military planned to send more than 5,000 soldiers into Lebanon for a rapid search-and-destroy mission. They said the operation was based on an assessment that Israel would accept a United Nations-arranged ceasefire in Lebanon by the end of the week.

Little information has been released by the military on Israeli ground operations. On Monday, the military said infantry and engineering units spent two days in the area of Rajar in search of Hizbullah positions. Rajar is a border village divided by Israel and Lebanon.

The sources said the Israeli ground operation would seek to destroy Hizbullah rocket arsenals and eliminate fighters in at least seven Shi’ite villages in southeastern Lebanon. They said Hizbullah was believed to have stored thousands of Katyusha-class rockets in the villages.

Thus far, Israeli ground troops have begun the establishment of a one-kilometer buffer zone inside Lebanon. The sources said army bulldozers have destroyed all Hizbullah outposts along the Israeli-Lebanese border…