Israel must respond to increased attacks by Hezbollah, War Cabinet Minister Gantz tells Blinken

Israeli War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz reportedly informed U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday that Israel had no alternative but to respond forcefully to the increase in Hezbollah attacks on Israel's northernmost border.

The Iranian-backed terror proxy Hezbollah recently stepped up its attacks on northern Israeli border communities, which has led to Israel responding by targeting various positions of Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon. 

“Gantz stated that heightened aggression and increased attacks by Iranian-backed Hezbollah demand of Israel to remove such a threat to the civilian population of northern Israel,” read the official statement. At the time of this writing, there was no official statement made by Washington addressing the issue. 

While the U.S. Biden administration supports Israel’s right to self-defense against the Hamas terror regime in Gaza, Washington has emphasized that it does not want the current war to expand into a full-fledged regional conflict involving Iran and its powerful Lebanese terror proxy Hezbollah.

In October, the United States dispatched two aircraft carriers to the Eastern Mediterranean to warn Iran and Hezbollah to stay out of the ongoing war between Hamas and Israel.

However, Iran and Hezbollah are already deeply involved in the war. 

Hezbollah has stepped up its unprovoked attacks on northern Israel, while Tehran has ordered its Houthi terror proxy to strike Israeli and international assets and interests in the Red Sea region.

Six IDF soldiers and four Israeli civilians have already been killed by Hezbollah’s cross-border attacks in northern Israel. At the same time, at least 120 people have reportedly been killed on the Lebanese side as a result of the Israeli military response to Hezbollah aggression. Hezbollah admitted that it has so far lost some 100 of its members. However, Israel believes the Iranian-backed terror group is trying to cover up an even higher number of killed terrorist operatives. 

Despite the ongoing tension on the Lebanese Israeli border, neither Hezbollah nor Israel appears to be currently interested in an escalation that could potentially lead to a full-scale war in the north. Given the fact that Hezbollah is significantly more powerful than its ally Hamas in Gaza, a full-scale war between Hezbollah and Israel could have dramatic regional and international consequences. 

The Israeli government has indicated several times that it is currently not interested in expanding the conflict to a second front against Hezbollah.

Gantz’s statement to Blinken is likely part of Jerusalem’s effort to pressure Washington, France and other international powers to restore calm on Israel’s northern borders via diplomatic channels.

Israel reportedly expects that the international community will somehow be able to enforce the UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which was passed after the Second Lebanon War between Israel and Hezbollah

The resolution was intended to establish a buffer zone between Israeli and Hezbollah forces and calls for a disarmament of Hezbollah forces stationed in southern Lebanon up to the Litani River. However, UN Resolution 1701 has largely been unenforced and Hezbollah has systematically been in violation of it by increasing its military presence along Israel’s northern border. 

Gantz’s warning to Hezbollah was preceded by Israeli National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi statement that a war with Hezbollah is likely happen after Israel defeats the Hamas terror organization in Gaza.

Hanegbi stressed that Hezbollah had become an intolerable threat to the residents of northern Israeli border communities. 

“Residents will not return if we don’t do the same thing” in the north against Hezbollah as it being done in the south against Hamas, the senior Israeli official told the Channel 12 news channel on Sunday. 

“We can no longer accept (Hezbollah’s elite) Radwan Force sitting on the border. We can no longer accept Resolution 1701 not being implemented,” Hanegbi warned. 

The Alma Research and Education Center, an Israeli NGO devoted to research on security challenges on Israel’s northern border, warned in early December that Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force was  ready to invade northern Israel and urged strong countermeasures to prevent such scenario from becoming reality.