PM vows Israel to continue striking Hezbollah ‘until all our objectives are met’

Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the UN General Assembly in New York on September 27, 2024. (YouTube. Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the UN General Assembly in New York on September 27, 2024. (YouTube. Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking at the UN General Assembly, says Israel will also defeat Hezbollah, stressing the global threat it poses. It has tentacles on five continents and has murdered more Americans and Frenchmen than any terror group except Osama bin Laden’s, he says.

He tells of the 60,000 residents of northern Israel who became refugees in their own country, displaced by Hezbollah’s unprovoked attacks. “How long would the American government tolerate that? I doubt even a single day.”

“I’ve come here to say, enough is enough,” he stresses. “We won’t rest until our citizens return safely to our homes.”

“For 18 years Hezbollah brazenly refuses to implement UNSC resolution 1701,” he says, stressing that it moved forces right to Israel’s border instead of leaving southern Lebanon as that 2006 resolution required.

He says that Hezbollah “puts a missile in every kitchen, a rocket in every garage,” endangering their own people. He notes that he told the Lebanese citizenry this week to get out of the “death trap” into which Hezbollah has placed them by putting weaponry in their homes, stressing, “We’re not at war with you. We’re at war with Hezbollah.”

“As long as Hezbollah chooses the path of war,” Israel has every right to remove the threat it poses and ensure the safe return of its citizens.

Israel has taken out senior Hezbollah military commanders, destroyed “large percentages” of its rockets, and “we will continue degrading Hezbollah until all our objectives are attained,” he says.

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