Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged his government on Sunday to prepare for “changing the situation” on the northern front with Lebanon given the ongoing clashes and mounting tensions.
Speaking at a weekly cabinet meeting, he said the situation in the north cannot go on, calling on the army and all security agencies to prepare for change on the front.
The government is committed to returning all residents of the north safely to their homes, he added, while describing Hezbollah in Lebanon as Iran’s “strongest” arm.
Meanwhile, Israeli security sources told local media that the battle with Lebanon is “imminent”, but the timing for it hasn’t been set yet.
Israel is confronted with two scenarios: either reach an agreement that ends the war on Gaza, or the negotiations collapse, and it would have to deal with a broad war against Hezbollah, they added.
Israel’s Channel 12 reported that the government has put on hold escalating the fight against Iran-backed Hezbollah.
A security official said an agreement that ends the war on Gaza gives Israel the opportunity to choose the best timing to launch attacks against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in the future, which will take place after the army completes its preparations to launch a broad war on Lebanon.
The army is in the final phase of its preparations for the potential battle, he revealed.
Expanding the war may include a land incursion into Lebanon, destroying Hezbollah’s capabilities deep in Lebanese territories and forcing its fighters away from the border with Israel, he went on to say.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah vowed to continue its battle in support of Hamas in Gaza.
“Israel won’t be able to return its settlers back to their homes no matter how loud they cry. The only way they can return is by ending the war on Gaza,” declared Deputy Chief of Hezbollah’s Executive Council Sheikh Ali Daamoush.
Speaking at a funeral in Beirut’s southern suburbs of Dahieh, he stressed that Hezbollah “will never agree to a change in the rules of engagement and a change in the current equations.”
“The more the enemy intensifies its attacks, the more the resistance will increase its deterrence and expand its operations,” he stated.
Moreover, he dismissed the latest Israeli threats to wage a wide-scale war on Lebanon, saying: “This won't change our position ... or force us to quit the battlefield. Escalation won’t be met with escalation. We do not fear threats or intimidation.”
On the ground, Hezbollah retaliated on Sunday to Israel’s killing of three civil defense members in a strike on their fire truck a day earlier.
The party launched drones and rockets at the Upper and Western Galilee.
The Israeli army announced on Sunday that it launched a series of air raids against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, adding that it also intercepted several projectiles fired from Lebanon overnight.
The military said it struck Hezbollah military facilities in Aitaroun, Maroun al-Ras and Yaroun in the South.
Hezbollah said it fired rockets at Israel’s Kiryat Shmona in response to the killing of the civil defense members.
Three Lebanese paramedics were killed and two others wounded, one critically, in an Israeli attack while they were extinguishing fires in the southern town of Faroun, Lebanon's health ministry said on Saturday.
“Israeli forces targeted a team from the Lebanese Civil Defense as they responded to fires sparked by recent Israeli airstrikes,” a ministry statement said.
The Amal movement, a Hezbollah ally, said two of the paramedics were among its members.
“They were martyred while performing their humanitarian and national duties in defending Lebanon and the South,” it said.
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the attack as a violation of international law and announced an emergency meeting on Monday with Western ambassadors and international organizations to address the ongoing hostilities.
“To date, because of Israel's aggression, 25 paramedics from various ambulance teams have been killed, along with two health workers, and 94 paramedics and health workers have been injured,” the health ministry statement added.
The health ministry also condemned the attack as a “blatant strike” on an official Lebanese state apparatus, marking the second such attack on an emergency team in less than 12 hours.
