Benjamin Netanyahu wants to “cut off Hezbollah's oxygen”

During his visit to Israel's border with Lebanon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited soldiers fighting there against Hezbollah. He declared that the only way to ensure the safety of the northern inhabitants of Israel is to push Hezbollah beyond the Litani River. He stressed that this must happen and no ceasefire can be concluded until then.

– In simple words: action, action, action – said Netanyahu and added that Hezbollah should also be “cut off from oxygen”, i.e. from weapons supplies from Iran via Syria.

Earlier, Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian declared that Israel should decide on a ceasefire in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

“If they rethink their behavior, accept the ceasefire and stop massacring the suppressed and innocent people in the region, it may influence the strength of our response,” Pezeshkian said in an interview with the state news agency IRNA. Iran's president previously threatened to respond to the October 26 Israeli airstrikes on Iran.

Since the outbreak of the war in the Gaza Strip in the fall of 2023, Hezbollah has been regularly shelling Israel. The attacks were met with heavy retaliation, and over a month ago Israel launched massive airstrikes on Lebanon. At the beginning of October, Israeli soldiers also entered the south of the country to fight Hezbollah forces there.

Israel emphasizes that the aim of the operation is to ensure the security of the north of the country, from which approximately 60,000 people were evacuated due to the shelling. Dozens of people died in Hezbollah's attacks on Israel. The health ministry in Beirut said on Wednesday that 2,800 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Lebanon, most of them during the ongoing escalation. According to government estimates, approximately 1.2 million Lebanese residents have fled their homes.