TEL AVIV — With US-led negotiators expected to meet on Sunday in Cairo for another round of talks on ending the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Hezbollah and Israel seem to be edging closer to a full-scale war.

“We are within touching distance of an Israeli attack in Lebanon, which is intended to allow us to return the residents of the north to their homes,” a senior Israeli military source told Al-Monitor this week, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “This situation will not be able to continue for much longer.”

Tens of thousands of Israelis along the border with Lebanon have been unable to return to their homes, from which they were evacuated more than 10 months ago over fears of a cross-border invasion by Hezbollah similar to the Oct. 7 Hamas infiltration of Israel’s southern border with Gaza. Similarly, tens of thousands of Lebanese have left their homes in southern Lebanon in recent months for fear of an Israeli attack. 

“One of the things we have learned recently is that the State of Israel cannot accept the threat of military infiltration. It simply cannot continue, and if [Hezbollah’s] Radwan [Force] does not voluntarily leave the border, we will be forced to do it ourselves,” said the senior security source. “We are at the closest point to a regional war as we have ever been.”