Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to keep striking Hezbollah and fight “until victory” against Hamas, in an address to world leaders on Friday that defied calls for ceasefires in Lebanon and Gaza.
He also shot a warning at Iran and said Israel would retaliate if Tehran carries out a direct attack.
“If you strike us, we will strike you, there is no place in Iran where the long arm of Israel can not reach,” the Israeli PM said.
Israel’s aerial bombardment of Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon has killed around 700 people this week alone, according to the health ministry, but a US-led bid for a ceasefire has failed to take hold.
“As long as Hezbollah chooses the path of war, Israel has no choice, and Israel has every right to remove this threat and return our citizens to their home safe,” Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly, adding that operations against the Iran-backed militant group will “continue until we meet our objectives.”
Nearly a year into the war with Hamas in Gaza, Israel shifted its focus to its northern front with Lebanon, with its wave of aerial bombardment sparking an exodus of around 118,000 people.
On Friday, Lebanon’s National News Agency said Israeli air strikes had intensified overnight, and that one strike had killed a family of nine in south Lebanon.
Tanks Prepare For Ground Offensive
Israel said on Friday that any ground operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon would be swift.
“We will try to do it as short as we can,” said the official, without providing a clear timeline or specifying what would be the objectives of a ground campaign.
The goal of Israeli military operations in Lebanon is to downgrade Hezbollah’s capacity to fire on Israel, eliminate the group’s military leadership and “clean” the border areas from fighters, he said.
Photos released by news agency Reuters showed Israeli soldiers working among tanks lined up along the Israel-Lebanon border.
Hezbollah fighters began firing on Israel shortly after Hamas’s October 7 attack that triggered the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, in what the Iran-backed Lebanese movement says is in support of its allied Palestinian group.
Hezbollah, a part of Iran-led Axis of Resistance, is also being supported by the Houthi militia of Yemen, who earlier attacked Israel with a missile and a drone that was intercepted by the Israeli air defence system.
Iran and the militias it backs in the neighbouring countries of Israel have vowed to support Hamas by attacking Israel until it does not stop its operation in Gaza.
Fresh Strikes
Shortly after the speech by Benjamin Netanyahu at the UNGA, the Israeli military said it was carrying out fresh strikes against Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon.
Israel’s military “is currently striking terror targets belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organisation in southern Lebanon,” the military said in a statement.
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