The cabinet met in the underground command room of the Kirya military headquarters, Hebrew media reported, the first time such a meeting has been held there since the night of April 13-14, when Iran launched some 300 missiles and drones at Israel, almost all of which were intercepted.
The meeting was taking place in “the pit,” as the underground command room is known, but not due to immediate security concerns, but rather in order to drill for a potential emergency situation, Channel 12 news reported, as Israel was preparing for a promised attack by Iran and its terror proxies to several recent high-profile assassinations.
According to Channel 13, the Israeli assessment on Thursday was that Hezbollah would try to target a senior Israeli official in retaliation for the Israeli killing of commander Fuad Shukr on July 30, which came after a Hezbollah rocket attack killed twelve children in the Golan Heights days earlier.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant issued an unusual missive to the Lebanese people, warning in Arabic that Israel will fight Hezbollah “with all its might” if the group continues to escalate tensions.
“The State of Israel wants peace, prosperity and stability on both sides of the northern border and therefore will in no way allow the Hezbollah militia to destabilize the border and the region. If Hezbollah continues its aggression, Israel will fight it with all its might,” Gallant wrote. READ MORE