"You can hear the planes here; we are attacking all day, both to prepare the ground for the possibility of your entry, but also to continue striking Hezbollah," Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi told a tank brigade, according to a statement issued by the military.

"We are not stopping. We will keep attacking and harming them everywhere," Halevi said.

"To do this, we are preparing for the course of the manoeuvre, and the sense is that your military boots, your manoeuvre boots, will enter enemy territory," Halevi said.

"Your entry there with force... will show (Hezbollah) what it is like to meet a professional combat force," he said.

"You are coming in much stronger than them, much more experienced than them; go in, destroy the enemy there, and go destroy the infrastructure," Halevi said.

"These are the things that will allow us to safely repatriate the residents of the north later."