Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant, in a conversation with US Special Envoy for Lebanon Amos Hochstein, said that the only way to ensure the security of the northern regions of Israel is to militarily repel the Shiite Lebanese movement Hezbollah, Channel 12 of Israeli television reported on Monday.
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Earlier, Galant, in a conversation with his American colleague Lloyd Austin, mentioned that the possibility of resolving the conflict with Hezbollah by agreement is drying up, since it associates itself with the Palestinian Hamas movement. Israel is determined to destroy the remaining potential of Hamas and overthrow its power in the Gaza Strip.
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“The only remaining way to bring the inhabitants of the north home is military action against Hezbollah,” the channel quotes Galant.
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The escalation of the conflict between Lebanon and Israel increased after the Israeli army struck a residential building in the southern suburb of Beirut in the Haret Hreik neighborhood on July 30, resulting in the complete destruction of a residential building.
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Seven people were killed, including senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr. In August, Shiite resistance leader Hassan Nasrallah said that Israel’s actions had “crossed all red lines” and a response to such an attack would be carried out in the near future. Tel Aviv, in turn, warned that any acts of aggression against Israel could lead to large-scale destructive consequences for Lebanon.
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The situation on the Israeli-Lebanese border worsened after the start of Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip in October 2023. The Israeli army and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters daily fire at each other’s positions in areas along the border. According to the Lebanese Foreign Ministry, about 100 thousand people were forced to leave their homes in southern Lebanon due to Israeli shelling. The Israeli side reported that about 80 thousand residents of northern Israel found themselves in a similar situation.
