‘We don’t count’: Northern leaders complain military only acts when Tel Aviv is targeted
Three northern mayors vow to cut off contact with government, accusing it of ignoring 10 months of attacks along Lebanon border; homes in Acre, Manot damaged by rockets
Some residents of Israel’s north fumed on Sunday after Israel launched an extensive preemptive attack against Hezbollah’s planned assault on the center of Israel, following 10 months of near-daily rocket attacks on the north with little sign of resolution.
The vast majority of the 230 rockets and 20 drones fired by Hezbollah at Israel were intercepted by the Iron Dome or fell in open areas, but an Israeli Navy soldier on a patrol boat was killed, apparently by interceptor shrapnel, while shrapnel from an interception hit a home in the coastal city of Acre, lightly wounding a civilian. Another rocket struck the northern community of Manot, causing damage.
Many rockets also struck open areas, with some sparking small brushfires.
The IDF said that its preemptive strike in the early hours of Sunday morning struck some 270 separate Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon, taking out thousands of rocket launcher barrels.
Three mayors from the north published a joint statement on Sunday announcing that they would cut contact with the government until it delivers a plan to restore security in the north and see to its recovery.
“We haven’t interested you for 10.5 months, and from now on, you don’t interest us. Don’t call, don’t come, don’t send messages. We have managed alone until now, we will manage alone now,” said the statement, issued by the regional council heads of the Upper Galilee and Mateh Asher, and the mayor of Metula.
Since October 8, 26 civilians have been killed on the Israeli side amid the escalation in violence along the northern border, as have 20 IDF soldiers and reservists.
Northern leaders on Sunday charged that the government only felt compelled to protect residents of central cities, such as Tel Aviv, while remaining indifferent to the cost suffered by those in the north.
“Israel launches a preemptive strike for residents of the center, while for 10 months, northern residents have been living under fire, far from their homes and families,” said Matan Davidian, who represents the evacuated northern community of Shlomi.
“The dozens killed and injured have no value for the prime minister, who is hiding behind a failed defense minister, abandoning the northern border and its residents, and simply doesn’t care that our blood is being spilled,” he said.
Acre family shelters in a shoe closet as drone hits their home
In the coastal city of Acre, a family of five was forced to shelter in a meter-wide shoe closet, narrowly surviving a direct hit when a Hezbollah drone struck their home, damaging their kitchen, living room and the bedroom of one of their children.
“We went into the shoe closet. My mom came to close the closet, and then there was the drone, and we all heard the boom. The power went out, too — we didn’t see anything, and there was smoke,” recalled Tamar Sa’ada, the youngest child, to Kan radio on Sunday.
Tamar’s father, Ami Sa’ada, emphasized how close the family came to catastrophe: “If they hadn’t been in the shoe closet… my daughters’ bed, the two beds above them, it’s all [covered by] shards of glass.”
Giora Zaltz, chairman of the Upper Galilee Regional Council, put the preemptive strike Sunday morning in perspective: “Even if we destroyed 6,000 missiles — that’s 3% of [Hezbollah’s] capacity. The threat is only growing.
“The reality is that Israel’s border has moved 40 kilometers south. And every week that passes, we lose more and more of the north,” he added, saying a threat against Kiryat Shmona ought to be treated with the same gravity as a threat against Tel Aviv.
“We just don’t count to them,” said Dror Gavish, of the “Lobby 1701” group, Ynet reported.
Lobby 1701 was founded this past December by residents of the north, demanding aggressive action to push Hezbollah’s forces north of the Litani River, in compliance with the United Nations Security Council resolution that ended the Second Lebanon War in 2006.
“The government only acts according to what’s good for it politically. Abandoning the north doesn’t cost them politically, so they’re at peace with it,” Gavish said, calling for the government to be replaced.
Selective response
The northern leaders were joined by some national politicians, who also condemned what they said was a selective response to Hezbollah attacks.
“The choice to thwart the attack only after 10.5 months of Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel is the continuation of the policy of containment,” said Gideon Sa’ar of the opposition New Hope party. “This opportunity should have led to a decision on an overall preemptive attack to change the reality in the north.”
Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, of the coalition’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party, compared Israel’s action to “letting a robber empty the house and reacting only when he approaches the safe.”
For months, some politicians and many northern leaders have called for a major operation against Hezbollah, which has attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis since October 8, 2023, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.
Israel’s leadership has repeatedly vowed to restore security to the north and has threatened to send Lebanon “back to the Stone Age” if a military operation is left as the only option. They have insisted, however, that they would prefer not to go to war if there is an alternative.
For weeks Israel has been bracing for a Hezbollah response to avenge the death of the terror group’s senior commander Fuad Shukr, whom the Israeli military killed last month in a Beirut airstrike, days after a Hezbollah rocket attack struck a soccer field in the Golan Heights, killing twelve children and young people. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said Sunday that he would not rule out further strikes in the coming days.
Emanuel Fabian and Joshua Davidovich contributed to this report.
