Israel's military chief said there was a possibility for a "sharp conclusion" to the conflict with Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, the military said on Thursday.
"In the north, there's a possibility of reaching a sharp conclusion. We thoroughly dismantled Hezbollah's senior chain of command," Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi said in a video statement from a security assessment in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
Israel unleashed its Lebanon offensive with the declared aim of securing the return home of tens of thousands of people evacuated from homes in northern Israel during a year of cross-border hostilities with Hezbollah.
Israel has used airstrikes to pound southern Lebanon, Beirut's southern suburbs and the Bekaa Valley, and sent ground forces into areas near the border. Lebanese authorities say the campaign has killed more than 2,500 people and displaced more than 1 million people, spawning a humanitarian crisis.