Israel is preparing for a possible ground invasion of the Gaza Strip as the war against Hamas continues, which would mark the first incursion into the territory since 2014.
Israel Defense Forces Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said in a Sunday interview with ABC's This Week that the nation is preparing for a multi-front war in the Middle East after Hamas launched its attacks on Oct. 7, the largest assault against Jewish people since the Holocaust.
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"We will strike Hamas from the top, through its institutions, all the way down to the individuals that conducted the butchering of our babies," Lerner said. "We did not ask for this war, but we will win it."
The Gaza Strip is home to a dense Palestinian population of nearly two million people. Hamas, the governing body of the territory, has been in power since 2007. More than 3,600 people have been killed in the fighting between Hamas and Israel.
Israel, in its counterattack, ordered a "total siege" of Gaza last week, cutting off its population of nearly two million from access to electricity, food, and fuel. The government ordered the evacuation of northern Gaza, home to 1.1 million people, late Thursday, the United Nations announced.
The Israel Defense Forces gave Palestinian residents of the area 24 hours to evacuate, prompting concerns that the country would be launching a massive ground assault. However, Hamas has told northern Gaza residents to reject the IDF's order and stay in their homes, accusing Israel of using "psychological warfare" against Palestinians.
Among the dead are also 29 Americans, with 15 U.S. citizens still missing or unaccounted for, according to the State Department. National security adviser Jake Sullivan blamed Hamas for stopping U.S. citizens in the Gaza Strip from fleeing the territory through the Rafah crossing, the sole passage point between Egypt and Gaza.
National security officials in Israel and the U.S. have expressed concern that the war in Israel will open the conflict to other fronts. However, Lerner said Israel is prepared for an escalation should groups like Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group, become involved in the war.
"We have recruited some 300,000 reservists in order to be prepared for any eventuality. Those reservists are both for the southern front, on the border with Gaza, so they're in staging grounds preparing for a potential ground invasion if the government instructs us to do so," Lerner said. "But also, they're dispersed throughout the communities and on the border and frontier with Lebanon in anticipation for potential uptick in violence with Hezbollah."
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The Israeli military spokesperson added that they have had "several skirmishes" along the border and had anti-tank guided missiles fired at IDF, causing casualties.
"I would highly recommend that Hezbollah watch very closely what is happening to Hamas and the organization in Gaza as we speak," Lerner said. "They should be very cautious of crossing that threshold, because we are determined to defend the state of Israel."