Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on Tuesday with Israel Defense Forces soldiers in the north, vowing to achieve total victory over the Jewish state’s enemies.
“On behalf of all citizens of the State of Israel, I would like to tell you that you are marvelous. I also want to tell you that I rely on you and the people of Israel rely on you,” said the premier.
“Somebody here told me: ‘Because we are the people of Israel.’ This is what I want to tell you here, and nobody in the world is better than you. We are helping—and we will help even more because you deserve it and we must achieve our objectives, including victory. We will achieve it with God’s help and with yours,” added Netanyahu.
The prime minister was accompanied by his chief-of-staff, Tzachi Braverman; his military secretary, Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman; and the head of IDF Northern Command, Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin.
The visit came as Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant met in Washington with his American counterpart Lloyd Austin to discuss the range of threats posed by Tehran and its terror offshoots.
“We know that Israel’s citizens still face a very real and very dangerous threat from Iran,” as well as “from its terrorist partners and proxies, including Hezbollah, the Houthis, and, of course, Hamas,” said Austin. “The United States will always support Israel’s right to defend itself, and the United States will always ensure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself.”
Austin told Gallant that he is “extremely concerned about the rise in rocket attacks on Israel’s north from Lebanese Hezbollah and the recent surge in tensions,” and that a broader war “would be a catastrophe for Lebanon and…devastating for innocent Israeli and Lebanese civilians.”
U.S. presidential envoy Amos Hochstein last week warned officials in Beirut that the Biden administration will not be able to stop an Israeli military operation in Lebanon if the Iran-backed terror group continues its attacks, Axios reported on Tuesday.
The report, which cited U.S. and Israeli officials, as well as a Western diplomat, said Hochstein passed on the message during a June 18 meeting with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah.
In a video message published on Saturday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed to fight the Jewish state “without restraints, without rules, without limits” should war be “imposed” on Lebanon. He has also threatened that “an invasion of the Galilee remains on the table if the confrontation escalates.”
Hezbollah has attacked northern Israel nearly every day since joining the war in support of Gaza-based Hamas on Oct. 8, killing more than 20 people and causing widespread damage. Tens of thousands of Israeli civilians remain internally displaced due to the ongoing violence.
Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer and Israeli National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi have told U.S. President Joe Biden’s aides that Netanyahu prefers a diplomatic solution to the ongoing conflict, according to Axios.
