By Zein Khalil
JERUSALEM (AA) – Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Sunday that attacks on the Lebanese group Hezbollah will persist until Israeli residents displaced from northern Israel return to their homes.
“Hezbollah is beginning to experience the strength of the Israeli army, and there is already a strong sense that they are being hunted,” Gallant said during an inspection of an Air Force base in northern Israel.
“The military operations would continue until northern Israeli residents could return home safely,” he said. “This is the goal, and we will do everything necessary to achieve it."
Foreign Minister Israel Katz also vowed to push Hezbollah out of the border area north of the Litani River.
“I have contacted dozens of foreign ministers and instructed all Israeli embassies worldwide to deliver a clear message: Israel will do whatever is necessary to protect its citizens from Hezbollah,” Katz said in a statement.
"If the world does not act to remove Hezbollah from the north of the Litani, Israel will,” he added.
On Aug. 11, 2006, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1701, which calls for a complete cessation of hostilities between Lebanon and Israel.
The UN resolution calls for Israel to withdraw behind the Blue Line (the border between southern Lebanon and Israel) and disarmament of the region between this line and the Litani River in Lebanon, allowing only the Lebanese army and the UN Interim Force in Lebanon to possess weapons and military equipment in the area.
Tension has mounted between Hezbollah and Israel following a deadly airstrike on Friday that killed at least 45 people, including children and women, and injured dozens in Beirut’s southern suburb.
Hezbollah confirmed that at least 16 of its members, including senior leader Ibrahim Aqil and top commander Ahmed Wahbi, were killed in the Israeli strike.
The attack came two days after at least 37 people were killed and over 3,000 others injured in two waves of wireless communication device explosions across Lebanon.
While the Lebanese government and Hezbollah have blamed Israel for the explosions, Tel Aviv has not denied or confirmed its involvement.
Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in cross-border warfare since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza, which has killed nearly 41,400 people, mostly women and children, following a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7 last year.
* Writing by Ikram Kouachi