Push to return north Israel residents risks inflaming tension
Israel said enabling residents displaced by Hezbollah attacks to return home is now a formal war objective, a signal the country is considering an all-out offensive against the Lebanese militant group.
Hezbollah, which is trained and receives funding from Iran, has been trading fire with Israel since the war in Gaza erupted almost a year ago. The group has sent thousands of rockets, missiles and drones into northern Israel in solidarity with Hamas, which is also backed by Tehran and designated a terrorist organization by the U.S.
Israel has responded in kind, and tens of thousands of Israeli and Lebanese civilians have fled the border area as a result of the hostilities.
“The security cabinet has updated the objectives of the war to include the following: returning the residents of the north securely to their homes,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said after a late-night meeting on Monday.
Netanyahu and his ministers have warned for months that Israel may have to escalate its military operations against Hezbollah, which is considered the most powerful non-state actor in the Middle East. They say that may be the only way to stop Hezbollah firing on Israel and get its fighters to move back several kilometers from the border, something seen as essential to enabling the return of the Israeli evacuees.
Many Israelis fear that Hezbollah, which like Hamas vows to destroy the Jewish state, could carry out an incursion like the Oct. 7 rampage that triggered the Gaza conflict.
Netanyahu’s government has said it prefers a diplomatic solution but time is running out. The issue is causing tension with the U.S., which is trying to prevent an escalation of unrest across the broader Middle East.
Israel’s 10-member security cabinet originally passed a war resolution addressing only Gaza. It committed to destroying Hamas as a governing and military force and to recovering hostages seized by the Palestinian militants.
Amos Hochstein, one of U.S. President Joe Biden’s senior Middle East advisors, met Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in Israel on Monday.
Netanyahu “made it very clear” to Hochstein, who handles the Israel-Lebanon file, “that it will not be possible to return our residents without a fundamental change in the security situation in the north,” the prime minister’s office said. “While Israel appreciates and respects the support of the U.S., it will — ultimately — do what is necessary to safeguard its security.”
Hochstein told Netanyahu the U.S. doesn’t believe a broader conflict in Lebanon will help northern Israelis return to their homes and, if anything, will risk a wider regional conflict, according to an American official, who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive material. The U.S. remains committed to a diplomatic solution, the official said.
Gallant, in a separate meeting with Hochstein, made similar remarks to his boss.
The defense minister “emphasized that the possibility for an agreement is running out as Hezbollah continues to ‘tie itself’ to Hamas, and refuses to end the conflict,” according to a statement from the ministry. “The only way left to ensure the return of Israel’s northern communities to their homes will be via military action.”
Hezbollah has said it will pause fighting if Israel does the same in Gaza. But U.S.-, Qatari- and Egyptian-mediated efforts to achieve a truce between Israel and Hamas have been deadlocked for months.
‘Stone Age’
Gallant, whose prospects of staying in office are in doubt after repeated clashes with Netanyahu, has previously warned that Israel could take Lebanon “back to the Stone Age” if Hezbollah didn’t back down.
Hezbollah’s arsenal is believed by Israeli intelligence to include precision-guided missiles capable of knocking out large numbers of infrastructure targets. It has enough projectiles to potentially overwhelm Israel’s vaunted air defenses.
“Action is approaching,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in reference to the northern front shortly before the security-cabinet vote.
“The balance of power between Israel and Hezbollah will be very clear at its conclusion,” he told Israel’s Channel 14. “The outcome will be that Hezbollah will be hit hard, will lose capacity and will have to back off.”
Tensions have spiraled since Israel’s assassination of Fuad Shukr, a top Hezbollah commander, via an airstike on Beirut in late July. Hezbollah has said it will take revenge.
On Tuesday, Israel’s internal security service Shin Bet said it foiled a Hezbollah plot to assassinate a senior Israeli ex-official, who it did not name, using an anti-personnel mine primed to be remote-operated from Lebanon. There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah on the alleged plan.