Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s national security adviser cautioned Lebanese Hezbollah against exacerbating tensions, particularly in the context of ongoing hostilities in Gaza. Stressing the importance of restraint, the adviser urged Hezbollah not to engage in any activities that could potentially lead to the “destruction” of Lebanon.
While Israel’s military focus remained centered on the Palestinian enclave, Tzachi Hanegbi, speaking during a televised briefing, underscored the nation’s efforts to avoid getting entangled in a two-front war. He highlighted that the limited clashes along the Lebanese border indicated that Hezbollah was currently operating within a framework of controlled escalation.
Expressing concerns over the repercussions of a potential conflict with Hezbollah, Hanegbi emphasized the catastrophic consequences such a conflict could have on Lebanon, echoing Israel’s long-standing stance of retaliatory strikes against the extensive missile arsenal of the Hezbollah group.
Admitting to misjudgments regarding the Hamas attacks, which claimed the lives of over 1,300 people, Hanegbi acknowledged that the assessment of the Palestinian group’s intentions had been a mistake shared across the Israeli intelligence community. Dismissing certain media reports as “fake news,” he confirmed that, although the Israeli intelligence agency received unusual intelligence prior to the attack, it was not interpreted as a concrete warning of the imminent assault by Hamas.
