Report: Netanyahu weighed preemptive strike on Hezbollah in Lebanon post-Oct. 7

Writing in The Washington Post, columnist David Ignatius claims that Israel almost launched a preemptive strike against Hezbollah in Lebanon in the early days of the war but ultimately pulled back.

Ignatius says that during his recent time in Israel he “met with nearly a dozen top commanders” of the IDF, including Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Without citing any specific sources, he writes that Israel was “so worried that Iran and its proxies would exploit their disorientation” in the initial days following Hamas’s October 7 assault that Netanyahu “came close to launching a preemptive strike against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed.”

Israel and Lebanon have been trading deadly cross-border fire for the past six weeks, but have yet to move to an all-out war. Six IDF soldiers and three civilians have been killed, as well as dozens in Lebanon, the vast majority Hezbollah operatives.