Netanyahu leaves door open for Lebanon to act against Hezbollah before Israel exacts ‘very heavy price’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leaves open the possibility that a ground operation in Lebanon could be forestalled, warning the Lebanese government that if it “continues to allow Hezbollah to act in violation of your commitment to disarm it,” then Israel will do so.

“You committed, so take your fate into your own hands,” he says. “The time has come for you to do it.”

“If they don’t, it’s clear to you that we will,” he continues. “How? On the ground, not on the ground, other things — I will not detail here. But I promise you, as I said, we will exact a very heavy price from Hezbollah.”

He says that if Lebanon’s government “wants to save itself,” they should “participate in this action.”

“If they don’t, we will have no choice but to do so in our own ways,” he says.

He notes that before Israel drastically weakened Hezbollah in 2024, it had 150,000 rockets and missiles, and the potential capacity to “bring down the skyscrapers of Tel Aviv and cause devastation in central Israel and beyond, with 15,000-20,000 fatalities. That did not happen because we hit them with a massive blow,” he says, responding to a question that asserted he had exaggerated Israel’s past successes against Hezbollah given its ongoing rocket and missile attacks. They have certain remaining capacities,” he acknowledges, but — like Iran — they are much weakened. “We’ll deal with it,” he says.

Netanyahu promises not to “abandon the residents of the north,” adding that he is holding discussions “not for the sake of discussion, but discussions for the sake of action.”