Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the northern border with Lebanon on Wednesday and stated that the preemptive strike on Lebanon is not the end, emphasizing that efforts will continue to return Israeli residents back to their homes.
“A few days ago, we thwarted a surprise attack by Hezbollah on the State of Israel. We destroyed thousands of short-range rockets, which were aimed at the Galilee and the Golan,” Netanyahu says in the wake of Sunday morning’s massive Hezbollah attack, in which the terror group fired 230 rockets into Israel.
Netanyahu also added that the Israeli Army had destroyed all the drones launched by Hezbollah in its recent attack.
“We stopped all the drones aimed at the State of Israel, the Galilee, and the center,” he continues, touting the preemptive strike ahead of an anticipated attack on Tel Aviv as “a great success.”
However, “I am not telling you that it is enough,” he continues, adding that “this is not the end of the story.”
Nearly 70,000 residents of the north remain displaced following the outbreak of hostilities with Hezbollah in the wake of Hamas’ October 7 attack on southern Israel.
Internal Tension
During a briefing with the Israeli Army’s Northern Command, the Israeli Prime Minister declared that the return of Israel’s displaced residents is a “national goal.”
Responding to Netanyahu, former war cabinet minister and National Unity chairman Benny Gantz asserts that the prime minister’s claim of prioritizing the return of the displaced “is a lie.”
“You did not agree to include it in the goals of the war, prevented a discussion on the diversion of resources to the north for many months, and above all — wasted time,” he tweeted.
“Even now, you continue to be cut off from the residents, repeatedly coming to the north and not meeting them or the heads of their [local] authorities.”
