Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressing ambassadors during following a tour in the upper Galilee, source: twitter.com/IsraeliPM
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that there is a “reasonable possibility” that the Israeli military may have to conduct operations inside Lebanon territory. This move will go as a part of the Israeli military’s ongoing Operation Northern Shield, which is aimed at discovering and neutralizing Hezbollah cross-border tunnels.
“This operation is just beginning but in the end, the tunnels weapon, in which Hezbollah has invested so much, will not exist and will not be effective … Whoever attacks us – is taking his life into his hands. Hezbollah knows this and so does Hamas,” Netanyahu told 25 foreign ambassadors during a tour in a supposed tunnel site in the upper Galilee on December 6, according to the Israel Ynet News outlet.
Netanyahu also revealed that Israel will call for a U.N. Security Council meeting soon to demand a response from the international community to the supposed tunnels of Hezbollah. The Israeli PM even demanded a condemnation from the Lebanese government, which does not even recognize the existence of Israel.
“Israel expects an unequivocal condemnation of Hezbollah, the imposition of additional sanctions on Iran, a condemnation from the Lebanese government and a demand that it stops giving its approval for the use of its territory for these attacks against Israel,” Netanyahu said.
A day earlier, Hassan Hoballah, a member of Hezbollah’s political bureau, warned Israel from launching any military operation inside Lebanon and stressed that the “resistance” will response to any such aggression. Hoballah also revealed that Hezbollah fighters are on “a constant state of alert and surveillance, and are assessing the situation” in southern Lebanon.
Netanyahu’s threat proves that Israel may indeed seek a military confrontation with Hezbollah. Local observers believe that such confrontation, if it happens, it will be very limited because a full-on war would only create more problems for everyone in the region, including Israel.
