From the Liveblog of
Sunday, September 22, 2024
Netanyahu: ‘We hit Hezbollah with a string of strikes that it didn’t imagine’
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleLazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promises that the Hezbollah terror group will “get the message” after a series of dramatic Israeli operations.
“Over the past few days we hit Hezbollah with a string of strikes that it didn’t imagine,” he says in a video statement.
“If Hezbollah didn’t get the message, I promise you, it will get the message,” he says.
“We are determined to return our [displaced northern] residents safely to their homes. No country can tolerate [rocket] fire at its residents, [rocket] fire at its cities,” the premier says. “The State of Israel cannot tolerate it either.”
As he has in recent days, Netanyahu promises that Israel “will do everything necessary in order to restore security.”
On Friday, Israel assassinated top Hezbollah commanders Ibrahim Aqil and Ahmed Wahbi, along with other top members of the terror group, in an airstrike on a residential building in Beirut. The IDF said Aqil was overseeing a planned operation to invade the Galilee.
The strike came after 30 members of Hezbollah were killed in pager and walkie-talkie blasts in Lebanon last week. The attack was attributed to Israel, which has not commented.
Israel has also carried out hundreds of airstrikes in recent days, which the military said targeted Hezbollah rocket launchers primed to be fired.
The Times of Israel Community.