TEL AVIV, October 1. /TASS/. The Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) ground operation in southern Lebanon will be swift and decisive, IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said.

"I will not disclose any specifics for our adversaries, but we will try to do this as quickly as possible. Days, weeks, I will not reveal this to the enemy. We will do what is needed within the framework of the limited and localized operation we are carrying out right now," he said at a briefing.

According to Hagari, Israeli troops will focus exclusively on hitting Lebanon-based Shiite party Hezbollah’s infrastructure in south Lebanon’s borderline areas. "We are not heading toward Beirut, we are not entering any towns in southern Lebanon, we are concentrating on settlements near our border," the army spokesman said.

He stressed that the main goal of these actions is dismantling Hezbollah’s infrastructure which, according to the IDF, was ready to be used for offensive actions against Israel. "Any other sovereign country would have done the same," the military official asserted.

On September 23, Israel launched an offensive operation, dubbed Northern Arrows, aimed at undermining the military infrastructure of the Hezbollah movement, carrying out massive air strikes across Lebanon, with dozens of settlements in the south and east of the country targeted. On September 27, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in one of the Israeli strikes on Beirut with his death officially confirmed by the Shiite party.

Overnight on October 1, the IDF announced a limited ground operation in Lebanon’s borderline areas.