Netanyahu orders IDF to ‘intensify blows’ against Hezbollah amid surge in drone attacks |
Israel will escalate strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday, as a US official said the terror group had ignored warnings to halt firing at Israel in a conflict that could threaten US-Iran negotiations.
The prime minister’s remarks were followed by confirmation from the IDF that it had launched a fresh wave of strikes against Hezbollah targets in eastern and southern Lebanon.
Lebanese security sources said people had begun fleeing the southern suburbs of Beirut, a known Hezbollah stronghold, for fear of a renewed Israeli assault on the capital.
At the same time, a senior US official indicated on Monday, amid a surge in drone attacks targeting Israel, that Washington could soon greenlight a larger Israeli operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah have continued to trade blows despite an April 16 truce aimed at halting the deadliest spillover of the US-Israeli joint war on Iran. However, Israel has avoided targeting the terror group in Beirut and other locations beyond southern Lebanon, facing pressure from Washington amid the talks with Iran. Tehran has demanded a halt to Israeli attacks in Lebanon as a condition in talks with the US aimed at ending the broader war.
The IDF has struggled to counter the daily threat of Hezbollah drone attacks on IDF troops in Lebanon and on communities in northern Israel.
Netanyahu said Israel would begin intensifying its operations in Lebanon again, after incidents on Monday in which an unmanned aerial vehicle crashed into a home in the northern border community of Metula, and an explosive drone damaged a school bus stop in the border village of Shomera. A soldier was also killed by a suicide drone on Sunday, the latest in a line of servicemen recently killed in such attacks.
“Hezbollah has ignored repeated requests to stop firing at Israel, including a recent ultimatum,” the senior US official told The Times of Israel. “Israel will never be expected to passively absorb attacks on its forces and civilians. This is not the Biden administration.”
The official noted that over the past eight days, Hezbollah had fired over 1,000 drones and more than 700 rockets at Israel, in an apparent bid to derail talks between Jerusalem and Beirut, several rounds of which have been held in Washington.
“It broke the ceasefire on March 2 and is now intent on denying the Lebanese people a path to peace and reconstruction,” the official said, referring to Hezbollah’s decision to join Iran in attacking Israel days into the joint US-Israeli war on the Islamic Republic.
The Iran-backed terror group sees the talks between Israel and Lebanon in Washington as “an existential threat,” the official said, and fears a ceasefire that would strip it of its “power and narrative.”
IDF struggles to........