In message directed to international community, PM Netanyahu says ‘no country can accept rocketing of its cities’

In a short video message in English, directed to the international community, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explained why Israel cannot back down in its conflict against the Hezbollah terror group. 

Referring to the start of the Gaza War and the brutal Hamas massacre on Oct. 7, Netanyahu stated that Hezbollah entered the conflict the following day, "completely unprovoked," and began launching rockets at communities in northern Israel.

“Hezbollah attacked Israel completely unprovoked,” the prime minister said. “They fired missiles and rockets into our cities. They made 60,000 Israelis leave their homes along the Lebanon border, becoming refugees in their own land.” 

Netanyahu emphasized that the rocket attacks have continued since that day. 

“No country can accept the wanton rocketing of its cities,” the prime minister stated. “We can’t accept it either. We will take whatever action is necessary to restore security and to bring our people safe back to their homes.” 

Netanyahu’s message appeared to be directed toward the international community, which has been pressuring Israel not to escalate the situation against Hezbollah, despite the terror group’s constant bombardment of Israel’s northern border communities. 

The prime minister has been more outspoken in his criticism of alien countries in recent days, calling out the UK’s Labour government in a recent interview with The Daily Mail. 

Israeil President Isaac Herzog recently spoke to the British presss, where he expressed a similar sentiment. Herzog also appeared to place some of the blame for the current situation on primarily western countries which have constantly called for Israel to exercise “restraint.” 

“We kept on being restrained and restrained and restrained, but something has to end,” Herzog told Sky News during an interview. “We have to bring our citizens back to their homes. That's the most natural obligation of any nation to its citizens.” 

Herzog also repeated a message shared by IDF leadership following the strikes in Lebanon, in which several commanders were eliminated over the weekend. 

“All of these leaders who were eradicated on Friday by the Israeli attack, all of these leaders were meeting together in order to launch the same horrific, horrendous attack that we had on October 7th by Hamas, by burning Israelis, butchering them, raping their women, abducting and taking hostage old people and young, and little babies,” Herzog stated. 

In a press briefing to Israeli media on Saturday night, IDF Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Daniel Hagari said, “Yesterday, in a targeted strike in Beirut, we eliminated Ibrahim Aqil, Head of Hezbollah's Operations Unit, along with 15 commanders of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Unit.” 

The commanders had “gathered in the heart of the Dahiyeh neighborhood in Beirut, under the cover of the civilian population. They met to plan terror attacks and infiltrations into Israeli territory, but we knew where they were, and preempted them – eliminating them in a precise and powerful operation conducted by the Intelligence Directorate and the Israeli Air Force.” 

The growing sentiment among military analysts and former military leaders in Israel is that the IDF will have to engage in more significant actions against Hezbollah, possibly including another limited incursion into Lebanon, in order to remove the current threat state and bring the safe return of the evacuees to their homes in the north.

There are also growing indications that Israel is preparing to do so within the coming weeks.