Herzog says Hezbollah will not stop attacks because Hamas doesn’t want deal to end war

Hezbollah will not stop attacking Israel because Hamas doesn’t want a hostage deal, President Isaac Herzog tells CNBC.

“[Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah decided that he wants to keep on going in the war because we are trying to negotiate a hostage deal, and [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar, in the dungeons of Gaza says no and again, no and again, no,” says Herzog.

He says that “resolving the conflict means bringing back our hostages home, and first and foremost, we have to remove the threat from Israel’s northern border, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

“We will do whatever it takes to bring our citizens back home and enable calm in our cities,” Herzog insists. “We’ve shown our capabilities, and we have much more on the way if they will continue.”

All of Iran’s proxies, says Herzog, “are trying to close in on Israel from all sides of our borders. That’s the real situation now.”

“Hezbollah is a terrorist army which basically hijacked a nation called Lebanon. We tell the Lebanese people that we have no war with them, that we care for them, that we want to enable a peaceful future between us and Lebanon,” says Herzog.

Israel must defend itself, Herzog emphasizes, and does so according to humanitarian law: “We alert, we give ample warning, according to the rules of international law, but people have missiles in their kitchens, in their living rooms, in their storage rooms, in their mosques, in their shops. Now ask yourself, do you know anybody around your family or vicinity that holds a lethal weapon of such magnitude in his own home?”

He also responds to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s remarks that Hezbollah cannot stand alone against Israel, and that Lebanon must not become another Gaza.

“The Iranian president says something,” says Herzog, “and yet his National Guards are leading the entire region into the abyss by ongoing terror, by the pressing the button, by instructions of his own generals, who are seated in the control rooms of Hamas and Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah and the Houthis and the proxies in Iraq.”

“If the president of Iran really wants to lead to a different direction, then these proxies must be eliminated, must be removed,” says Herzog.

Source » timesofisrael.com