The intense part of the military operation in Rafah is almost over, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday night, explaining that the next goal is to bring an end to Hezbollah’s attacks along the country’s northern border.
“The intense phase of the war is about to end in Rafah,” after which the IDF will “continue mowing the grass all the time. We will not give up. We hit them hard,” Netanyahu said in a wide-ranging interview with Channel 14.
It marked the first time since the start of the Gaza war on October 7, that he had granted an interview to an Israeli television station.
Once the IDF completes its intense fighting in Rafah, “we will face north,” Netanyahu said, amid heightened expectation that the IDF is set to launch a military campaign in Lebanon to oust Hezbollah from the territory on Israel’s border to stop its persistent attacks.
Israel, he said, is open to a diplomatic resolution to the Hezbollah threat, but he stressed, “It must be on our terms.”
Any diplomatic resolution must involve a real solution, that includes the “physical removal of Hezbollah from the border,” Netanyahu stated.
Netanyahu speaks of returning residents of northern Israel home
“We will have to enforce it” because the residents of the North must be allowed to return home, Netanyahu said as he referred to the scores of thousands of citizens who fled their communities in the North on October 7 and have not been able to safely return.
“We are obligated to return the residents of the North to their homes,” Netanyahu stated.
He did not provide specifics with retard to the possibility of a third Lebanon war, but said, “We will do what is necessary. I can assure the citizens of Israel that if we are required to take on this challenge, we will do it. We can fight on several fronts, and we are also preparing for it.” Netanyahu acknowledged that it was possible that Israeli electricity facilities could be damaged in the war, but did not elaborate further.
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