Israel‘s PM and prez toured northern Israel’s border and met with military commanders there Wednesday, amid escalating tensions with Hezbollah forces in Lebanon and mounting concerns from world leaders that a wider war could break out. PM Benjamin Netanyahu posted a video online during his visit of him saying Israeli forces were “determined and committed to the mission of achieving victory, and no less.”
Israeli defense secretary Yoav Gallant wrapped up four days of sessions in Washington with senior Biden administration officials who frequently called for a political resolution to the tensions between Hezbollah and Israel. Since the Hamas-led assault on October 7 that set off a battle with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Iran-backed military has been focusing on Israel. In recent months, conflicts have risen.
” Hezbollah’s actions threaten to pull the Israeli and Palestinian citizens into a battle that they do not need”, Lloyd Austin, the US secretary of defence, said in a conference with Gallant on Tuesday. According to Austin,” such a war would be disastrous for Lebanon and devastating for innocent Israeli and Lebanese civilians.”
Gallant, in that same meeting, said Israel was working to “achieve an agreement”. He added, though, that Israel was “determined to change the reality on the ground” and” to establish security” in the north. He added that his country could “take Lebanon back to the Stone Age, but we do n’t want to do it,”” we must also discuss readiness for every possible scenario.”
More troops were being sent to the northern border region, according to a report released on Wednesday by Israeli media. Netanyahu stated in a TV interview on Sunday that the military would now focus more on Lebanon as the conflict in Gaza was moving into a new, less-intensive phase.
On Wednesday, Herzl Halevi, the Israeli military’s chief of staff, also visited the northern border with Lebanon and held a” situational assessment” with local commanders. The military described the training of Israeli troops in the north as “extreme scenarios.” The Israeli military reported on Wednesday that its fighter jets struck a Hezbollah military base and targeted several other southern Lebanoni locations.
Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, stated last week that the Lebanese militia was prepared for war rather than a fuller conflict. We have prepared for the most challenging times. If war is imposed, the resistance will fight without constraints, rules or limits”.
