Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has completed a security tour of Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.
He met with security forces and firefighters stationed in the area.
Netanyahu was briefed on the operational situation, recent events, management of the defensive battle and actions taken to defend the communities in the north.
He was also briefed Brigade and Northern Command actions against the Hezbollah terrorists and infrastructure in Lebanon.
The Prime Minister visited the area hours after firefighters confirmed that they had gained control of a series of major fires in northern Israel sparked by Hezbollah rocket and drone attacks, following about 48 hours of intense firefighting efforts.
“We said, at the start of the war, that we would restore security in both the south and the north – and this is what we are doing,” Netanyahu stated.
“Today I am on the northern border with our heroic fighters and commanders, as well as with our firefighters. Yesterday the ground burned here and I am pleased that you have extinguished it, but ground also burned in Lebanon.”
Benjamin Netanyahu
He voiced Israel’s resoluteness to combat Hezbollah.
“Whoever thinks he can hurt us and we will respond by sitting on our hands is making a big mistake,” Netanyahu averred.
“We are prepared for very intense action in the north. One way or another, we will restore security to the north,” he added.
During the visit, he also met with troops from the IDF’s 769th “Hiram” Regional Brigade to discuss operations against Hezbollah.
Netanyahu’s visit came amid intense political and public criticism for his failure to restore security to the northern borders where tens of thousands of evacuated Israelis are yet to be able to safely return home.
Around 60,000 residents of towns and villages along Israel’s northern border have been displaced from their homes since October, 2023, due to the near-daily cross-border rocket and anti-tank missile attacks by Hezbollah and other terrorists in southern Lebanon.
Earlier on Wednesday, the government raised the number of reservists the IDF is authorized to call up if needed from 300,000 to 350,000.
Military sources told a news agency that the move was related to expanded operations in the Gaza Strip, rather than the northern front.
The IDF said that the cap was increased due to ongoing operations in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, which has taken more additional personnel than initially planned.
The cap was initially set at 300,000, before being raised to 360,000 in the early weeks of the war.
It was then dropped back to 300,000, and has now been expanded to 350,000.
Amid the war in Gaza, the IDF called up a total of 287,000 reservists, although many of them have already been released from duty for now.
It marked the largest-ever call-up of reservists in Israel’s history.
Israel-Lebanon Border Violence Portends Future War
Omar Ashour, a Professor of security and military studies at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, opined that surging violence near the Israel-Lebanon border could portend a future war between Israel and Hezbollah.
“I think a war in the north is likely but not now because Gaza is not finished yet,” Ashour said, noting that Israel has for months received more rocket fire from southern Lebanon than from Gaza.
If Israel’s current government remains in place, Ashour predicted conflict along Israel’s northern front could seriously escalate by the end of this year.
“It’s a steadily escalating situation with a vision that the north is a threat and needs to be dealt with at some point, perhaps later this year,” He said.
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