The prospect of the Gaza conflict escalating into a wider regional war has increased significantly following Israel’s explicit threat this week to attack Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
The possibility of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia opening a second front on Israel’s border has been viewed as a distinct possibility ever since Hamas launched its devastating 7 October attack against the Jewish state.
While Hezbollah’s leadership has appeared equivocal, in public at least, about supporting Hamas in its war against Israel, the recent upsurge in attacks close to Israel’s northern border has prompted the Israelis to warn that they will launch military action to remove the threat posed by Hezbollah’s military infrastructure in southern Lebanon.
In what amounts to the most direct warning Israel has issued against Hezbollah’s leadership since the Gaza conflict erupted, retired Israeli general Benny Gantz, one of the three Israeli ministers who make up the country’s war cabinet, threatened to significantly increase military action by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) against the militia.
“The situation on Israel’s northern border demands change,” Gantz told a press conference late Wednesday. “The stopwatch for a diplomatic solution is running out."
“If the world and the Lebanese government don’t act in order to prevent the firing on Israel’s northern residents and to distance Hezbollah from the border, the IDF will do it,” he said.
His warning was echoed by Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, Israel’s Chief of the General Staff, who has overseen the IDF’s uncompromising assault against Gaza during the past 11 weeks. Halevi warned that IDF units in northern Israel were in "very high readiness" to tackle the Hezbollah threat.
"Our first task is to restore security and the sense of security to the residents in the north, and this will take time," he said, adding that the IDF had already undertaken a "situational assessment" of the deteriorating security situation.
