In his first interview since the start of the ceasefire in Lebanon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that if Hezbollah were to violate the agreement, there would be “intensive war.”
The prime minister said he had given the Israel Defense Forces instructions that in the case of a “massive violation of the agreement,” the response would extend beyond “surgical operations like we’re doing now.”
Meanwhile, a day after the ceasefire took effect, the IDF’s Home Front Command lifted all restrictions on gatherings south of Haifa. The restrictions, which limited the number of people allowed at indoor and outdoor gatherings, were put in place amid heavy rocket fire from Hezbollah.
Restrictions remain in various areas of northern Israel, and schools will remain closed in the northern frontier towns and Golan Heights as Israel examines the security situation.
Thursday saw the military carry out a number of strikes in Lebanon for the first time since the ceasefire began, saying it had targeted terror operatives and violations of the truce. This included a strike on a Hezbollah medium-range rocket facility after identifying activity there, and another against two Hezbollah operatives who entered a known rocket launching site in south Lebanon. The army also said it fired warning shots at several suspects entering restricted areas.
Commenting on the ceasefire Thursday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said the military would enforce it “with fire” to enable the return of the displaced residents of the north to their homes.
“This agreement is the result of months of fighting and in particular the last three months. A lot of achievements in Lebanon, intense work, very determined work, the killing of the entire senior [Hezbollah] echelon, the killing of all the commanders,” Halevi said during an assessment. “It is now moving to another stage, with the same determination… and we have precise knowledge that Hezbollah came to this agreement from a place of a lack of options and weakness.”
He added that “the residents in the north are looking now and want to see us very determined on enforcement so that they can return, and this is our duty to them, and our duty to ourselves.”
Netanyahu, speaking to Channel 14’s Yaakov Bardugo, said the ceasefire “could be short.” He also noted that Israel had “enforced [the ceasefire] on its first day,” in reference to the strikes.
Asked why Israel was not creating a buffer zone in southern Lebanon, Netanyahu asserted that the “threat of a ground invasion [by Hezbollah] has been removed,” and said that the IDF had destroyed the terror group’s aboveground infrastructure on the border as well as its underground bunkers and tunnels.
He said that residents of the north would return “when they can do so safely. It will happen in stages.”
The ceasefire sets out a 60-day transition period, during which the IDF will withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon, while the Lebanese Army will deploy some 5,000 troops south of the Litani River, including at 33 posts along the border with Israel. Hezbollah is banned from operating south of the river, several kilometers from the border.
The US has also reportedly provided a side letter specifying Israel’s right to respond to any violations of the ceasefire.
Truce? In the Middle East? Not until Jesus returns and rules the world with a rod of iron.
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