Katz: If Lebanon doesn’t prevent Hezbollah attacks, Israel will ‘take the territory and do it ourselves’

Defense Minister Israel Katz says he has warned Lebanon that if it does not prevent Hezbollah from attacking, Israel will “take the territory and do it ourselves.”

“Hezbollah launched heavy barrages toward the State of Israel yesterday. The IDF responded forcefully in the Dahiyeh [the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold] and against Hezbollah targets across Lebanon,” Katz says during an assessment with senior IDF officers.

“I warned the president of Lebanon that if the Lebanese government does not know how to control the territory and prevent Hezbollah from threatening the northern communities and firing at Israel, we will take the territory and do it ourselves,” he says.

Katz also says that he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “instructed the IDF to prepare for an expansion of IDF activity in Lebanon and to restore calm and security to the northern communities.”