Netanyahu said the goal ‘is to distance Hezbollah beyond the Litani … to strike any attempt to rearm it.’
By JNS
The Israel Defense Forces will push the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror group north of Lebanon’s Litani River even without a ceasefire deal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Sunday night.
“With or without an agreement, the key to restoring peace and security in the north, to return our northern residents to their homes in safety, is to distance Hezbollah beyond the Litani, to strike any attempt to rearm it, and to respond firmly against any action against us,” the prime minister said during a visit to IDF soldiers serving on the Lebanese border.
“Simply put: Enforcement, enforcement, enforcement,” Netanyahu said following a meeting with reservists of the IDF’s 228th Brigade, known as the Northern Nahal. “And cutting off Hezbollah’s oxygen pipeline from Iran through Syria. We are committed to all of this,” the premier added.
On the Jewish state’s northern border, “you see and hear the change in reality—planes in the sky and our heroic fighters on the ground, across the border, eliminating the entire underground terror array that Hezbollah prepared for the invasion of the Galilee and an even larger massacre” than the one in southern communities on Oct. 7, 2023, according to Netanyahu.
“It won’t happen anymore,” Netanyahu vowed.
Israel’s war with Hezbollah could continue for months, Reuters news agency reported on Friday, citing a Lebanese political source linked to the terror group, as well as diplomats familiar with ongoing efforts to achieve a ceasefire.
A truce proposal drafted by the Biden administration in Washington was shelved due to being “unrealistic,” according to Reuters’ sources. Last week, two U.S. officials were cited as saying on two separate occasions that recent diplomatic talks had yielded “substantive” and “constructive” results.
A leaked draft deal published by Israel’s Kan News public broadcaster on Oct. 30 called for a pullout of all IDF forces from southern Lebanon within seven days, while Hezbollah and other local terrorist organizations are to withdraw from the border area within 60 days after signing.
The leaked draft agreement stated that “Israel and Lebanon recognize the importance of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 to achieving lasting peace and security and commit to taking steps toward its full implementation.