National security adviser indicates war against Hezbollah likely once Hamas is defeated
Hanegbi says threat of Lebanese terror group attempting Oct. 7-style massacre of civilians cannot be tolerated; says killing Sinwar in Gaza may expedite war’s end, hostages’ return
Dec 9, 2023
National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi indicated on Saturday night that once Hamas is defeated in Gaza, Israel may have to go to war against Hezbollah across the northern border in Lebanon.
While the Jewish state has long been worried by the threat posed to Israel by Hezbollah’s missile arsenal, its prime concern in the wake of the slaughter of 1,200 people in southern Israel by Hamas on October 7, said Hanegbi, is that Hezbollah’s Radwan force could attempt a similar murderous invasion from the north, targeting civilians in communities near the border.
Israel, he acknowledged, was tackling Hamas “17 years too late,” and it could no longer dare to tolerate the danger of the prevailing situation in the north, with Hezbollah’s forces at the border.
National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi indicated on Saturday night that once Hamas is defeated in Gaza, Israel may have to go to war against Hezbollah across the northern border in Lebanon.
While the Jewish state has long been worried by the threat posed to Israel by Hezbollah’s missile arsenal, its prime concern in the wake of the slaughter of 1,200 people in southern Israel by Hamas on October 7, said Hanegbi, is that Hezbollah’s Radwan force could attempt a similar murderous invasion from the north, targeting civilians in communities near the border.
Israel, he acknowledged, was tackling Hamas “17 years too late,” and it could no longer dare to tolerate the danger of the prevailing situation in the north, with Hezbollah’s forces at the border.
Some 60,000 residents of border communities have been evacuated from the north since October 7, amid relentless and sometimes deadly clashes across the border between Hezbollah and Israel.
“Residents will not return if we don’t do the same thing” in the north against Hezbollah as is being done in the south against Hamas, Hanegbi told Channel 12 news in a lengthy interview on Saturday night.
“We can no longer accept [Hezbollah’s elite] Radwan force sitting on the border. We can no longer accept Resolution 1701 not being implemented,” he added, referring to a UN Security Council resolution from 2006, at the end of the Second Lebanon War, that barred any Hezbollah presence within almost 30 kilometers of the border with Israel.
Asked directly if there would be a war in the north, Hanegbi said: “The situation in the north must be changed. And it will change. If Hezbollah agrees to change things via diplomacy, very good. But I don’t believe it will.”
Therefore, he said, “when the day comes,” Israel will have to act to ensure that residents of the north are no longer “displaced in their land, and to guarantee for them that the situation in the north has changed.”
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