IDF chief vows strikes on Hezbollah will intensify until terror group ‘understands’

The chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces promised Sunday to keep pounding Hezbollah until it understands there is no preventing tens of thousands of Israelis, displaced for almost a year, from returning to their homes in the north, while Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared the past week the worst the Lebanese terror group has ever gone through.

In a video statement recorded at the air force’s Tel Hanof base in central Israel, standing in front of an F-15 fighter jet, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi vowed that Israel would see northern residents return safely to their homes and lauded an Israeli strike in Beirut on Friday that killed top Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil and other terror leaders.

Halevi said Aqil’s assassination would “shake up” Hezbollah, noting that the terror leader and his commanders had “planned for years to occupy the Galilee; they are responsible for the murder of many Israelis, including soldiers, over the years.”

Echoing comments made by President Isaac Herzog earlier in the day, Halevi said the terror leaders had been “planning how to carry out the next attack — this may be what they were dealing with in that meeting on Friday afternoon — how to infiltrate the State of Israel, murder civilians, kidnap IDF soldiers.”

Halevi said the strike sent a “clear message” to Hezbollah that Israel has the capabilities to “reach anyone who threatens the citizens of the State of Israel.”

“The price that Hezbollah is paying has increased, our attacks will increase,” he said, noting that IDF fighter jets had targeted hundreds of terror sites in Lebanon in the past few days.

“We will safely return the residents to their homes, and if Hezbollah has not understood this yet, it will get another blow and another blow — until the organization understands,” he vowed.

The IDF chief also warned that Israel has “many more capabilities that we have not yet activated,” and said the country was “at a very high level of readiness both in attack and defense.”

Last week, the security cabinet updated its official goals for the ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza to include the objective of allowing residents of the north to return safely to their homes after having been displaced by Hezbollah attacks since October.

The comments came after the Lebanon-based terror group fired some 85 rockets deep into northern Israel on Sunday morning, and after the IDF carried out extensive airstrikes on Hezbollah targets.

Gallant also weighed in on Sunday, asserting that “the past week was the most difficult week in Hezbollah’s history, and especially in the last day.”

The defense minister also lauded the Beirut strike that killed Aqil, speaking to the media during an operational situation assessment at the IDF’s Northern Command together with Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin and senior officers.

“The IDF action in [the Beirut suburb of] Dahiyeh is significant, important and powerful. We have a goal: to return the residents of the north to their homes safely, and to do that we will take all the necessary measures,” he vowed.

Last week also saw the mass detonation of pagers, walkie-talkies and other devices used by Hezbollah operatives, in which dozens were killed and thousands were injured. The operation, on which Israel hasn’t commented, has been widely attributed to the Jewish state in what was reportedly a far-reaching and innovative endeavor that displayed extensive capabilities.

During Aqil’s funeral in Beirut on Sunday, Hezbollah deputy secretary-general Naim Qassem said that the group had entered a new phase of its battle with Israel that he described as an “open-ended battle of reckoning.”
Hezbollah may fire deeper

According to a Channel 12 report on Sunday that did not cite sources, the security establishment currently assesses that Hezbollah will try to reach areas even deeper into Israel, after the terror group fired rockets earlier in the day at the Haifa and Jezreel Valley areas, some 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of the Lebanon border.

The report said more rockets could be launched at Israel imminently, noting that some 1.5 million Israelis were now in Hezbollah’s line of fire.

Hezbollah claimed that the rocket fire on Sunday morning targeted a Rafael defense firm facility in the Haifa area and the Israeli Air Force’s Ramat David Airbase near Yokne’am in the Jezreel Valley.

The report added that Hezbollah has not yet used the precision missiles in its arsenal, fearing that could lead to all-out war with Israel after 11 months of cross-border attacks that the group says were carried out in support of Gaza amid the ongoing war against Hamas there.

Quoting an anonymous source, the report said Gallant, Halevi and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agree on the current strategy of gradually increasing pressure against Hezbollah, which has its risks but avoids sparking a full-scale war.

Other voices in the room, according to the report, have called for a ground offensive in Lebanon and more bombings in Beirut in order to restore security to the northern border.

The security cabinet was set to meet on Monday at 7 p.m. at the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv to discuss the escalations, the office of one of the ministers told The Times of Israel on Sunday.

US President Joe Biden told querying journalists on Sunday that he was worried about rising tensions in the Middle East but that his administration was “going to do everything we can to keep a wider war from breaking out. And we’re still pushing hard.”
Drones from Iraq

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq said Sunday it launched a drone at a target in the Jordan Valley, in what it claimed was its fifth attack of the day.

The Iran-backed group’s statement came after drone infiltration sirens were activated in dozens of communities in northern Israel near the Sea of Galilee. Videos posted to social media purported to show interceptions over the area.

Schools in northern Israel were set to remain closed on Monday in light of the ongoing security situation, the education ministry said.

Classes will be held remotely and no in-person activities will be held, including field trips and afterschool activities. The ministry said it would reassess the situation Monday evening, in conjunction with IDF’s Home Front Command.

Educational facilities were closed across the north on Sunday due to the hostilities in the north, but schools in the rest of the country have been functioning normally and will remain open, according to the ministry.

Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.

So far, the skirmishes have resulted in 26 civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 22 IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.

Hezbollah has named 504 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. Another 79 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and dozens of civilians have also been killed.

Source » timesofisrael.com