Netanyahu’s office denies seeking to preemptively strike Hezbollah days after Oct. 7

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office casts as “incorrect” a Wall Street Journal report claiming US President Joe Biden talked the Israeli premier out of preemptively striking Hezbollah in Lebanon on October 11.

“Already on the first day of the war [against Hamas on October 7], Prime Minister Netanyahu decided that Israel would first work to achieve a decisive victory in the south, while deterring an attack in the north,” the Prime Minister’s Office says, adding that “this policy was adopted by the [war] cabinet.”

Additionally, previous reports have said that it was Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and military officials who wanted to attack Hezbollah before tackling Hamas — following the military doctrine that if you’re going to fight on two fronts, deal first with the more potent enemy — but Netanyahu overruled that, joined by war cabinet minister Benny Gantz who had just joined the small panel directing the war.