“The IDF is prepared for any operation that required of it . . . Lebanon will tremble, and Hezbollah will be fatally hit,” said Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz.
By Aryeh Savir, TPS
If the IDF faces “days of combat – Lebanon will tremble, and Hezbollah will be fatally hit,” Defense Minister Benny Gantz stated in response to threats issued by Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.
Nasrallah gave a speech on Tuesday during which he claimed that “even the game of a few days of fighting will be a dangerous game for the Israelis and would lead them to undesirable consequences.”
Gantz participated on Thursday in the annual memorial service for the IDF’s fallen whose burial place is unknown and stated that “during these days, and although Israel is the most powerful force in the Middle East, there are those who threaten us with war or ‘battle days.’”
“Indeed, if there are days of battle on the various fronts, they will be difficult for the Israeli home front, but they will be difficult and terrible first and foremost for our enemies,” he warned.
“This is especially true for Hezbollah and Hamas, which are working to build offensive capability among the civilian population and are thus committing a war crime,” he noted.
“In the face of this threat, the IDF is prepared for any forceful operation that may be required of it – if we have to reach ‘battle days’ – Lebanon will tremble, and Hezbollah will be fatally hit,” he underscored.
The IDF Intelligence Division’s annual forecast for 2021 estimates that the Lebanon-based Hezbollah is deterred from a war with Israel and is not interested in a full-scale war with it.
However, Nasrallah is ready to carry out an attack on the border fence, even at the cost of an unusual Israeli response that will lead to a day or days of fighting, and is also ready to down an Air Force drone to reach a balance in the kill equation, it estimates.