Israeli PM Netanhayu Threatens Iran and Hezbollah

In an address to the Israeli parliament on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued menacing statements directed at Iran and the Lebanese Shiite group, Hezbollah.

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“We have a message for Iran and Hezbollah: do not test us in the north. Do not repeat the mistakes of the past because the price you will pay will be much worse,” he threatened after nine consecutive days of exchange of fire along the border between Israel and Lebanon.

“President Biden has already told you in English: Don’t do it. And I say to you in Hebrew: Be cautious,” Netanyahu added in his address. This was the first time he explicitly referred to Iran and Hezbollah since the war with Hamas began.

On Monday, Hezbollah hit an Israeli tank with a missile launch and attacked at five locations in northern Israel with weapons, prompting an artillery response from Israel.

This is the ninth day of fire exchanges along the border, the most tense situation since 2006, and it threatens to open another front of war for Israel, which has ordered the evacuation of 28 communities within two kilometers of the border with Lebanon, home to 27,000 people.

The peak of tension was reached on Sunday night when Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the launch of six anti-tank missiles and nine rockets, to which Israel responded by bombing the group’s positions in southern Lebanon. One civilian and one Israeli soldier were killed.

Furthermore, a projectile hit the headquarters of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in the town of Naquora, the origin of which is being investigated by UN peacekeepers, with no casualties reported.

In parallel to the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militias in Gaza, Israeli forces and Hezbollah have engaged in cross-border attacks, with actions also claimed by Palestinian factions in Lebanese territory.

These incidents have resulted in 17 deaths: five in Israel and 12 in Lebanon, including three civilians (one of them a Reuters cameraman), four members of Hezbollah, and five members of Palestinian militias.

“Hamas is part of Iran’s axis of evil, along with Hezbollah and its allies. They seek to destroy the State of Israel and kill us all. They want to return the Middle East to the abyss of barbaric fanaticism from the Middle Ages, while we aim to bring the Middle East to the heights of 21st-century progress,” Netanyahu stated.

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