Newsletter
Newsletter Support JNS

Lebanese prime minister calls Hezbollah ‘rational, wise’

Rocket alerts peal in the Galilee.

An Israeli tank at a staging area near the Lebanese border, Oct. 30, 2023. Photo by Ayal Margolin/Flash90.
An Israeli tank at a staging area near the Lebanese border, Oct. 30, 2023. Photo by Ayal Margolin/Flash90.

Air-raid sirens sounded in the northern Israeli community of Elkosh on Monday afternoon, the IDF said.

Earlier in the afternoon, terrorists in Lebanon fired shots at several IDF posts, triggering sirens in Rosh Hanikra in the Western Galilee and in nearby towns, close to the Lebanon border. The IDF responded with artillery fire and mortar shells towards the source of the attacks.

After a similar attack a bit earlier, the IDF struck Hezbollah “military” infrastructure in Lebanon.

The Iranian-backed Shi’ite terrorist group “has managed the situation rationally and wisely,” the Lebanese prime minister said in an interview with AFP.

“I am doing my duty to prevent Lebanon from entering the war,” Najib Mikati said. “Lebanon is in the eye of the storm,” he added.

Mikati then offered praise for Hezbollah, which has been firing at Israeli territory on a daily basis since Jerusalem declared war on Hamas after the Oct. 7 massacre of more than 1,400 persons in Israel.

“For now Hezbollah has managed the situation rationally and wisely, and the rules of the game have remained constrained to certain limits,” he said.

Six Israelis—five soldiers and a civilian—have been killed at the Lebanese border since Oct. 7.

Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has said that the Lebanese government will be held responsible for any attacks by Hezbollah on Israeli territory.

“I have never been in a room where I felt so much hatred,” the mother of 22-year-old Carolin Bohl, who was killed by Hamas, said after attending a Berlin event at which Albanese was guest of honor.
“If you define antisemitism narrowly, then you will miss” much of the harassment, discrimination and violence targeting Jews today, Alyza Lewin of the Combat Antisemitism Movement told JNS.
The U.S. Treasury Department announced new sanctions on people and entities in China and Hong Kong that it said were helping the Iranian regime secure weapons.
Although most polls show Religious Zionism, which is led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, passing the electoral threshold, the numbers are too close for comfort for Israel’s premier.
“If there is any evidence of fraud, abuse or ties to designated terrorist organizations, we will act,” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said.
The countries accused Iranian intelligence services and the IRGC of orchestrating attacks and intimidation campaigns through criminal proxies across Europe, North America and Australia.