The Wall Street Journal quoted Israeli security officials as estimating that the Israeli army has deployed 100,000 soldiers on the border with Lebanon.
In addition, the Wall Street Journal indicated that many Israelis who live near the border say that their army cannot end the fighting without them (the residents) receiving assurances that Hezbollah cannot do to them what Hamas did to the Israelis. in the south.
Israeli military officials intensified pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to launch a decisive strike, and this issue became a point of contention in the Israeli war cabinet, as Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant called for broader military action against Hezbollah, according to the newspaper.
And in Washington, where the administration of US President Joe Biden has put constant pressure on Israel to refrain from taking provocative steps in Lebanon that could drag the US military deeper into the fighting.
One of Biden’s senior advisors, Hamos Hockstein, arrived in Tel Aviv to continue American efforts to prevent the escalation of the fighting.
Netanyahu has so far yielded to US pressure, but military officials say Israel is one fatal blow away from Hezbollah triggering a new war with Lebanon. Netanyahu’s aides say Netanyahu hopes that a clear victory over Hamas in Gaza will push Hezbollah to… “God” ordered the withdrawal of his forces from Lebanon’s southern border with Israel.
The Wall Street Journal explained that the Israeli government officially evacuated tens of thousands of Israelis from 42 settlements near the Lebanese border due to fears that weeks of Hezbollah attacks would occur.
“I think we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something serious,” said Gideon Harari, a 66-year-old retired military officer who remained in Shaar Yashuv as a member of the community’s local council. “People won’t come back because they are afraid, so you have to do it now.” .
The newspaper quoted a 25-year-old Israeli paratrooper from Tel Aviv as saying that “war is inevitable,” and the soldier said that Israel must do something now.
He stated that “Hezbollah is better trained and more powerful than Hamas,” adding, “Either we will have a lot of deaths on our side, or it will be like the complete destruction of Beirut and southern Lebanon.”
While the Israeli army continues its attacks on Lebanese territory, targeting citizens’ homes, Hezbollah is carrying out military operations targeting Israeli army positions on the southern Lebanese border.
In his first speech after the start of the “Al-Aqsa Flood” battle and the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, the Secretary-General of Hezbollah revealed that the party’s operations “forced the enemy to keep its forces at the border and mobilize more of them, which reduces the pressure on Gaza.”
He pointed out that about a third of the Israeli army’s logistical forces are currently directed to the Lebanese border, and they are all elite forces, explaining that Hezbollah’s operations send a message to the Israelis that “it will commit the greatest folly in the history of its existence if it attacks Lebanon.”
2023-11-21 07:21:48
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