Netanyahu, Defense Chiefs Meeting on Hezbollah Provocations

Hana Levi Julian13 Av 5783 – July 30, 2023

Photo Credit: Telegram / Sabereen plus

Lebanese youth brandishing Hezbollah flags cross the border fence between Lebanon and Israel, in violation of the 2006 ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting with defense leaders on recent threats made by Hezbollah terrorist chief Hassan Nasrallah and Israeli diplomatic efforts towards Beirut.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and senior members of the Israel Defense Forces were expected to present the prime minister with intelligence and situation assessments, along with various possible scenarios during Sunday’s security cabinet meeting.

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The military chiefs were also expected to tell the prime minister that Nasrallah does not have any interest in a major conflict with the IDF, but rather is simply creating provocations.

Israelis living in the north do not currently face any threat from Lebanon, an IDF spokesperson said last week. Nevertheless Israel has increased military forces in the area.

The Latest Provocation
Lebanese youths this weekend cut through a fence placed by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) near the border village of Ghajar.

The infiltrators entered an area prohibited to Lebanese since the 2006 Second Lebanon War, according to a report by the Hezbollah-linked Al Manar news outlet.

The violation allegedly came as a form of protest against Israel’s presence in the village, (which lies within Israeli territory) and the closure of the Lebanese road between Wazani and Abbasia.

Israel ‘Unimpressed’ with Nasrallah Threats
Earlier in the day, Netanyahu said during his opening remarks to the weekly government cabinet meeting that his government is “not impressed by Nasrallah’s bunker threats. At the moment of truth, he will find us standing together shoulder to shoulder,” he said. “Nasrallah also knows that it is not worthwhile for him and Lebanon to put us to the test.”

The Hezbollah leader released a stream of venom on Saturday during a speech marking the Shi’ite festival of Ashura, warning the region “will not calm down until the cancerous growth (Israel) is uprooted.”

Nasrallah claimed, “The Palestinian people today believe more than before in the resistance, and they rely on it and [on] the axis of the resistance in the region. They make sacrifices and carry out jihad with knives, explosives, guns and rocks.”

The terror chief, whose efforts are generously supported by Iran, warned Israel to “beware of any stupid act, since the resistance will not cave, or renounce its responsibility to protect or deter, and will be ready for an option and to confront any mistake or stupid act.”

The latter threats were related to the continuing presence of one of two tents erected on Mount Dov (known in Lebanon as Sheba’a Farms), Israeli territory, several months ago by Hezbollah operatives. One tent has since been removed, but the second one remains despite diplomatic efforts by Israel and the United Nations to have it removed.

Israel will use the summer break “to try and reach an agreement,” Netanyahu said in his remarks to the cabinet. “Hopefully this time our outstretched hand will not remain in the air.”