Visiting border, PM vows to restore security in north ‘with or without an agreement’
Netanyahu says ‘enforcement’ needed to push Hezbollah back across Litani River, as unnamed Israeli official says diplomatic deal could be reached in next two weeks
Touring the northern border on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that whether via a negotiated settlement or military force, Israel will achieve the conditions it needs to restore security to the area and keep the Hezbollah terror group at bay.
During the visit with top army commanders, Netanyahu said that “with or without an agreement” with Lebanon, restoring security in the north and returning residents to their homes requires pushing Hezbollah north of the Litani River, preventing the terror group from rearming and responding to any activity against Israel, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office.
The Litani River is roughly 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) inside Lebanon from the border with Israel.
“In simple words: enforcement, enforcement, enforcement,” Netanyahu said, adding that it was also important to cut off Hezbollah’s “oxygen” supply of weapons from Iran through Syria.
Netanyahu, who was accompanied by IDF Northern Command chief Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin and other top officers, received an operations assessment as well as an update on the offensive and defensive plans in the arena amid the ongoing war against Hezbollah.
The prime minister declared that, from where he was standing, it was possible the hear the sounds of the “changing reality” as forces operated against Hezbollah targets from the air and on the ground, destroying infrastructure that, he said, had been prepared for an even more devastating invasion than the Hamas-led massacres of October 7, 2023.
Netanyahu’s visit to the border came as Israel’s military said more than 100 projectiles were fired from Lebanon into Israeli territory throughout Sunday. Several were intercepted, and some fell in unpopulated areas.
The US has been pushing for a ceasefire proposal that would restore calm to both sides of the Lebanon-Israel border more than a year after Hezbollah began launching missile and drone attacks against Israel on a near-daily basis.
A ceasefire deal to end the conflict could come within 10-14 days, an Israeli official told Channel 12 news and the Kan public broadcaster on Sunday evening, noting there has been significant progress in recent days.
On Thursday, senior White House aides Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein were in Israel for talks with Netanyahu and senior officials about conflicts with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, both backed by Iran.
Kan on Wednesday published the details of what it said was a draft agreement drawn up by the US for a 60-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. Israel is seeking a deal that implements UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which forbids Hezbollah from maintaining a presence south of the Litani River. However, Jerusalem reportedly also wants to be able to re-engage the terror group in southern Lebanon if it feels threatened.
A year of cross-border violence intensified more than a month ago, and Israel has increased its strikes and launched what it says is a limited ground operation to clear Hezbollah from the border area. Hezbollah has expanded its drone and missile strikes to hit targets further inside Israel and has been battling IDF troops in southern Lebanon.
Tens of thousands of Israeli citizens have been displaced from their homes by the Hezbollah attacks.
At the border, Netanyahu thanked reservists for their achievements, noting their long absence from their everyday lives and their families during the war. He said senior PMO staff had accompanied him on the tour for the purpose of putting together a government plan to help support reservists and their families.
Prolonged reservist duty that has been imposed on soldiers has become contentious amid a political battle over exemptions from the army granted to the ultra-Orthodox community. Critics of the exemptions, including Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, see the community as able to provide thousands of able-bodied men to boost army manpower, helping to reduce the reservist workload. The issue has become a focal point of coalition budget negotiations as the government includes ultra-Orthodox parties who are seeking to maintain the exemptions.
Netanyahu was also supposed to visit the border town of Metula. However, about 20 minutes before he was scheduled to arrive, a drone from Lebanon exploded in an army base in the town, and the prime minister’s convoy aborted the visit.
His office later released a statement insisting that Netanyahu had still been keen to visit Metula, but that security officials put a kibosh on the trip.
