While the Jewish state has long been worried by the threat posed to Israel by Hezbollah’s missile arsenal, its prime concern in the wake of the slaughter of 1,200 people in southern Israel by Hamas on October 7, said Hanegbi, is that Hezbollah’s Radwan force could attempt a similar murderous invasion from the north, targeting civilians in communities near the border.
Israel, he acknowledged, was tackling Hamas “17 years too late,” and it could no longer dare to tolerate the danger of the prevailing situation in the north, with Hezbollah’s forces at the border.
Some 60,000 residents of border communities have been evacuated from the north since October 7, amid relentless and sometimes deadly clashes across the border between Hezbollah and Israel.
“Residents will not return if we don’t do the same thing” in the north against Hezbollah as is being done in the south against Hamas, Hanegbi told Channel 12 news in a lengthy interview on Saturday night. READ MORE