By Khaled Yousef
JERUSALEM (AA) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to expand a military operation on the northern front with Lebanon, an Israeli media outlet said Saturday.
Channel 13 reported that Netanyahu made the statement during a strategic dialogue session on Thursday to discuss the escalation on the northern front, without specifying the parties involved in the session.
Israel is “on the verge of a broad and strong operation on the northern front,” he said.
The channel quoted an unnamed senior official from Netanyahu's office who said, “No date has yet been set” for the escalation “but it is expected in the near future.”
It added that the Cabinet is scheduled to meet next week to discuss the escalation.
The report noted that unnamed Israeli security officials said expanding the war on the northern front would require reducing the country’s military presence in the Gaza Strip at the same time.
The officials warned that any move to change the current situation in northern Israel "could lead to a large-scale war."
The report came shortly after Hezbollah's Deputy Secretary-General Naim Qassem said Israel's threat of war against Lebanon “does not scare us,” and he warned Tel Aviv that if war breaks out, hundreds of thousands of Israelis could flee from “long-range settlements.”
Speaking at a memorial in Beirut, Qassem said: "We have no plans to initiate a war because we do not find it useful, but if Israel launches a war, we will confront it with war, and the losses will be significant for both us and them," according to Lebanon’s National News Agency.
Nearly 120,000 Israelis have been evacuated from the north and south since the beginning of the onslaught against Gaza. They have been relocated to hotels in various parts of Israel.
Tensions have spiked along Lebanon's border with Israel amid cross-border attacks between Hezbollah and Israeli forces as Tel Aviv presses ahead with an offensive against Gaza which has killed more than 41,100 victims since last October following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas.
*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala